Tens of billions of accounts evaporated under the 'tricks' of bank employees?

The company's account balance is estimated to be around 26 billion VND, but when she went to the bank to withdraw money, the female director was shocked to see that there was only a few hundred thousand VND left.

Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Xuan - Director of Quang Huan Company said that her company is headquartered in Cu Chi, Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in buying and selling agricultural products. Since the end of March 2015, the company has opened an account at Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank). During the agricultural product buying and selling season, customers paid an estimated 26 billion VND into this account.

At the end of the season (around July 2015), Ms. Xuan went to withdraw money and found that 26 billion VND in the above account had disappeared, leaving only a few hundred thousand VND. When she requested to check the account, the bank staff asked her to change her signature because they said her signature was different from previous transactions.

Looking at the account statement later, she saw that there were continuous "withdrawal and transfer" transactions from the amount of money customers paid in. The signing and payment of checks also happened continuously while she had never bought a check. After checking again, she saw that the statement clearly stated that the person who bought the check from her company was a VPBank employee, Doan Thi Thuy Hang, and the person who withdrew the check was Ms. Hang's husband (Nguyen Huy Nhut) and 2 other people, Do Dinh Bao and Pham Van Trinh. In which, Pham Van Trinh was the Chief Accountant of Quang Huan Company.

The check transfer request clearly states that the check buyer of Ms. Xuan's company is VPBank employee - Doan Thi Thuy Hang.

What Ms. Xuan is wondering is that when she opened the account, she registered for mobile banking transaction notifications to her personal phone number. The account statement also shows that the bank charges full mobile banking fees, but she did not receive any messages about the above transactions.

Ms. Xuan reported that she had asked the bank to clarify the matter of the bank employee Doan Thi Thuy Hang buying checks from her company and assisting in the above transactions, but was not cooperated with on the grounds that the employee had quit her job. Therefore, this director sent a complaint to the Department of Investigation of Crimes on Economic Management and Positions (PC46) of Ho Chi Minh City Police in September 2015 for intervention, but to date the case has not had any results.

In addition, Ms. Xuan said that the bank had provided a set of documents for opening an account (photocopy) with the signature of Tran Thi Thanh Xuan - Director of Quang Huan Company, but the signature was Pham Van Trinh. In the documents, all the handwriting was not Ms. Xuan's, so according to her, it was possible that it was a fake document created by a bank employee named Hang, her husband, and Pham Van Trinh in collusion. Ms. Xuan also provided the signatures and handwriting of Pham Van Trinh at notary offices and tax offices for comparison, and it was indeed Trinh's signature and handwriting, but it was written in the name of director Tran Thi Thanh Xuan.

In a press release about the incident, Vietnam Prosperity Bank - VPBank confirmed that it had opened the above payment account for Quang Huan Company on March 28, 2015. This was based on the account opening application, seal sample, signature of the account holder and the accompanying documents and records that Quang Huan Company sent to the bank in accordance with the law. After opening the account, this company used it to carry out transactions to receive and transfer money to partners.

On October 19, 2015, the bank received a complaint from Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Xuan, alleging that Mr. Pham Van Trinh and a number of officers and employees of VPBank colluded to cause the company to lose 11.3 billion VND, which is different from the figure of about 26 billion VND that Ms. Xuan recently reported.

The signature and handwriting of Pham Van Trinh at the notary office match the signature of Director Tran Thi Thanh Xuan on the check.

VPBank said it immediately checked the account opening documents, worked with the relevant individuals, Mr. Pham Van Trinh (and Mr. Trinh's representative lawyer), as well as discussed and worked directly with Ms. Xuan on October 30, 2015. These individuals all denied the content of Ms. Xuan's accusation and requested a confrontation with her to clarify. The bank then invited Ms. Xuan to work to create an opportunity for confrontation, but Ms. Xuan did not cooperate and responded that she had sent a petition to the police investigation agencies.

The bank confirmed that it had then instructed Ms. Xuan to make a complaint in accordance with regulations on behalf of Quang Huan Company, which would serve as a basis for the bank to resolve the complaint. "These contents are all stated in the notice responding to Ms. Xuan's complaint as well as in the report sent to the State Bank on November 23, 2015. In addition, the bank is coordinating to provide documents according to the documents sent by PC46 on July 25, 2016 and August 1, 2016," VPBank said.

This bank believes that through inspection, the transaction documents of Quang Huan Company's account such as money transfer, withdrawal, check purchase... were all signed and stamped by the legal representative of Quang Huan Company with the signature and stamp matching the signature and stamp registered with VPBank in the company's account opening application.

Regarding transaction notification messages, VPBank confirmed that all transactions and balance changes were sent by the bank via SMS to the phone number registered by Quang Huan Company (this phone number has been verified by VPBank to be the phone number of Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Xuan - account owner and legal representative of Quang Huan Company).

In addition, VPBank believes that this is a case with signs of criminality and needs the investigation agency to verify and clarify. Currently, PC46 - Ho Chi Minh City Police is directly investigating and verifying the case. "We also hope that the investigation agency will quickly come to a clear conclusion about the case, at which time the bank will fully inform and always ensure the rights of customers in accordance with the law," the bank emphasized.

According to VNE