All the tricks used by bank officials to embezzle over 5 billion VND from the public.

At the end of June 2019, the Yen Thanh District Police received a complaint from three citizens residing in Vinh City and Yen Thanh town with the following content:

Between August 2018 and April 2019, through fraudulent bank loan activities, Ms. Pham Thi Thuy (born in 1982), an employee of the Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (Agribank) in Yen Thanh district, along with Bui Thi Oanh (born in 1988), residing in Hop Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, defrauded Mr. PTT in Yen Thanh town of 1.8 billion VND, Mr. NCH in Yen Thanh town of over 2 billion VND, and Mr. NPL in Vinh City of over 1.3 billion VND.

The suspect is Pham Thi Thuy. Photo: Duc Vu

After receiving the information, the Yen Thanh District Police verified it and determined that there were signs of criminal activity.

Given the complexity of the case, the unit established a special investigation team and coordinated with the Criminal Police Department (PC02) of the Nghe An Provincial Police to investigate and clarify the matter.

Accordingly, between July 2017 and early 2018, Bui Thi Oanh borrowed money from many people and was unable to repay it, leading to difficult and impoverished living conditions. Seeing this, Oanh's family members mortgaged their land ownership certificates to help Oanh borrow money from Agribank in Yen Thanh district.

At that time, Pham Thi Thuy, an employee of Agribank Yen Thanh branch, processed the loan application for Oanh. Thuy and Oanh became acquainted through this. During several meetings, Thuy proposed to Oanh that they find people in need of loans to repay debts when due (loan refinancing). Thuy would then instruct Oanh to provide false information about customers with overdue loans needing refinancing (in reality, no such refinancing occurred) in order to defraud the lenders.

The money transfer slip that the victim sent to Pham Thi Thuy. Photo: Duc Vu

Oanh herself was facing financial difficulties at the time, and seeing an opportunity to make money, she agreed to Thuy's proposal and followed all of Thuy's instructions.

During the period from June 2018, taking advantage of her position as a credit officer at Agribank Yen Thanh branch and to gain the trust of customers, Pham Thi Thuy fabricated information about bank loan maturity documents (which were actually fake documents). Thuy instructed Oanh to find individuals to lend money to refinance the bank loans.

To build trust, when someone needed to borrow money to refinance a loan, the group would discuss and arrange for the person to meet Thuy at her office. Once they knew Thuy was a bank employee, they would give her the money directly. After each successful money transfer, Oanh received a "commission" of several tens of millions of dong from Thuy.

An investigator from the Yen Thanh District Police said: During the fraud aimed at stealing money from victims, in the initial period (from 3 to 5 days), Thuy and Oanh paid the victims the full interest and principal to gain their trust. When the victims believed that a bank employee had confirmed the bank's maturity information was correct, they easily transferred money to Pham Thi Thuy's account. To conceal her criminal activities, Pham Thi Thuy used various bank cards for the victims to transfer money.

The suspect, Bui Thi Oanh. Photo: Duc Vu

During the investigation, the Yen Thanh District Police determined that Mr. NPL, residing in Vinh City, was defrauded of 1.35 billion VND by Bui Thi Oanh and Pham Thi Thuy in June 2018; Mr. NCH, residing in Yen Thanh town, was defrauded of 2.025 billion VND between July and September 2018; and Mr. PTT, residing in Yen Thanh town, was defrauded of 1.8 billion VND between August 2018 and March 2019. The victims transferred money to Thuy and Oanh in 21 installments, totaling over 5 billion VND.

Lieutenant Colonel Bui Van Ngoc, Deputy Head of the Yen Thanh District Police, stated: "During the investigation, the District Police Investigation Agency encountered many difficulties. The incident occurred over a relatively long period; the victims provided a lot of inaccurate information; the perpetrators exploited the victims' greed for high interest rates when lending to repay bank loans, making information verification difficult; moreover, the two suspects employed numerous tactics to evade the police before their arrest."

Currently, the Investigation Police Department of Yen Thanh District has initiated a criminal case, charged the suspects, and issued a temporary detention order against two suspects, Bui Thi Oanh and Pham Thi Thuy, for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

Currently, the investigation into this case is ongoing and being expanded.