Prosecution and temporary detention of bank employee who embezzled billions
In debt of about 20 billion VND due to online and real estate investments, Pham Kieu Hung, a bank employee, embezzled billions of VND from customers.
The Office of the Dak Lak Provincial Police Department of Investigation said that the unit has just issued a decision to prosecute and order the temporary detention of a bank employee to investigate the crime.Fraudulent appropriation of property, as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 174 of the Penal Code.
Accordingly, Pham Kieu Hung (born in 1995, residing in Quynh Ngoc village, Ea Na commune, Krong Ana district, Dak Lak province) is a credit officer of Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB Bank) Dak Lak province branch.
According to the initial investigation, Pham Kieu Hung worked at this bank from 2019 to 2023. In 2021, Hung participated in online investment (by depositing investment money into virtual trading floors online) and real estate investment. At first, seeing the profit, Hung borrowed more money to invest.
By August 2022, the total amount Hung had invested was 4.6 billion VND. However, by early 2023, Hung was incurring a loss and his debt had increased to about 20 billion VND, with monthly interest payments of 80 million VND.
Hung tried every way to get back the lost money, so he continued to borrow money from many other people. To gain trust, Hung tricked customers into making bank maturity documents to borrow money from others. By February 2023, with many people demanding debt, Hung forged a loan disbursement request and a debt acknowledgment contract (by creating a fake form and forging the customer's signature).
Hung then presented the VIB bank leader with a signature to disburse the money to the accounts of two relatives, so that the two people could transfer 4.7 billion VND back to Hung's account. Hung used this money to pay off his debt and continue to invest in virtual money on the internet.
Pham Kieu Hung's behavior was discovered by VIB Bank, Dak Lak branch. On June 15, 2023, VIB Bank, Dak Lak branch, decided to discipline Pham Kieu Hung by firing him for embezzling customers' money.
During the investigation, the police determined that between March 28 and April 6, 2023, Hung provided information that he needed to repay the bank loan to borrow money from many other people to invest in virtual investments on the internet and repay debts. Among them, Hung borrowed 1.5 billion VND from a resident of Cu M'gar district (Dak Lak province). When the payment deadline came, Hung did not repay the debt and is currently no longer able to repay the borrowed money.
On that basis, the Office of the Dak Lak Provincial Police Department of Investigation determined that Pham Kieu Hung's actions constituted the crime of Fraudulent Appropriation of Property.