The proliferation of transformed savings and credit associations

(Baonghean) -Playing a guild (hui, hoi, ho...) is understood as a form of mobilizing and contributing capital to help each other have savings in a group of people with the same interests on a voluntary basis. However, recently, many people in Quy Chau, Dien Chau, Nam Dan, through the Nghe An Newspaper hotline, have continuously informed that in the locality where they live, there are subjects who take advantage of the gullibility, greed and lack of knowledge of many people, turning the guild and hui into an opportunity for illegal profiteering...

We went to the family of Mrs. Ngo Thi That in Hamlet 5 on Highway 48 as introduced by the Dien Lam Commune Police (Dien Chau). Mrs. That and her husband, Ngo Sy Thuan, were victims of the ward owned by Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa in Hamlet 5. According to the records of the Dien Lam Commune Police, Mrs. Hoa owed Mrs. That 860 million VND. However, when we contacted her, Mrs. That denied this, saying that everything between Mrs. That and Mrs. Hoa was done!? Continuing along Highway 48, we went to the house of Ms. Chu Thi Trinh in Hamlet 2.

Learning from the previous experience, this time we pretended to ask to buy a house. And it seemed that this method worked immediately. “Who told you guys? Just talking nonsense, there is no way I could have broken the hui to sell the house.” – Ms. Trinh expressed her indignation. Ms. Trinh is also a “ward” of the boss Bui Thi Hoa. Accordingly, Ms. Hoa borrowed cash and owed Ms. Trinh 290 million VND in debt. But not only that, Ms. Trinh also owed other people nearly 1 billion VND, but has now paid almost all of it. “I have been trading since I was 12 years old, until I earned a little capital, it was gone. Saving up for the tiger to take away…” – Ms. Trinh sighed bitterly.

The house was once owned by Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa's family,
now taken to mortgage

There have been many sighs and tears of pity happening every day in the Dien Lam countryside with nearly 15,000 people in 25 hamlets. All because of the ward and hui. There were times when the people of Dien Lam looked at Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa in hamlet 5 with respect. Now, instead, there is resentment. According to the records of Dien Lam Commune Police, Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa is the head of the ward with about 20 participants. In the list of people who contributed to the ward for Mrs. Hoa and she owed money and ran away, there are some cases such as: Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoa residing in Cau Giat Town lost 794 million 800 thousand VND, Mr. Nguyen Sy Thuan in hamlet 5 lost 860 million VND, Mr. Hoang Van Du in hamlet 6 lost 800 million VND, Mrs. Le Thi Bich in hamlet 1 lost 173 million VND, Ms. Chu Thi Trinh in hamlet 2 lost 213 million VND... and many others. The total amount of money that Mrs. Bui Thi Hoa owes to the "ward children" according to incomplete statistics is about 3 billion VND. Her 3-story house, the most spacious and stately in the area, has also been mortgaged to someone else.

According to Mr. Thai Doan Tam - Head of Dien Lam Commune Police (Dien Chau), the commune police have only grasped the number of 4 wards and hui in the area. These are cases where the victims have filed complaints to the authorities. In reality, the number of wards and hui organizations in Dien Lam Commune is much higher. Coming to find out about the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Chien and Mr. Vo Van Tuan in Hamlet 6, Mr. Tuan said that his wife is the boss but does not intend to run away from debt to anyone. Because the "wards" do not pay, Mr. Tuan and his wife do not have money to pay the others.

Mr. Tuan said that his wife is the boss of 10 wards and also the "daughter" of 30 other wards. Among the 30 wards that Ms. Nguyen Thi Chien "follows", the lowest ward is 600 thousand VND/1 meal, the highest is 10 million VND/1 meal. Mr. Vo Van Tuan also said that it is impossible to count all the people who owe him at the same time. As for the debt to others, his family had to sell cars and furniture to pay it off. Pointing to the table and chairs in the living room, he said: "Someone took my table and chairs worth over 50 million VND to pay off the debt, so I also took another set from the person who owed me!"

In the past, playing the ward, they had the nature: everyone contributed money to help each other eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and develop the economy. Depending on the ability of each ward group to come up with a unified contribution level. The order according to the lot, whoever draws first gets the ward first. Or those who need a sum of money to solve family matters, the others are also happy to create conditions for them to draw even if it is not their turn. But up to now, the form of playing the ward, they have been taken advantage of by some individuals to profit with the manifestation of illegal capital appropriation. Accordingly, also in the form of contributing money, but whoever wants to get ward money must buy it by auction.

Suppose, a group of 10 people, with a contribution level of 1 million VND for each member. Those who want to take the group must follow the auction method, buy by secret ballot. Whoever buys the highest will be "married". That is why there is a situation: the total amount of the group is 10 million, the auctioneer had to buy it for 5 million VND. This amount is considered as interest divided equally among 10 people, each person gets 500 thousand VND. The actual amount that the successful buyer gets is only 4.9 million VND after paying a commission of 100 thousand VND to the group leader.

In fact, most of the money contributed to the ward goes into the pockets of some people who take advantage of this form to mobilize money and appropriate capital. Normally, people follow the ward but rarely buy, but only contribute money to get interest. Mr. Pham Van Chung - Head of Hamlet 17, Dien Yen Commune (Dien Chau) said that the interest rate is unbelievable! A ward chain of 10 people participated with a contribution of 1 million VND/person. The buyer had to spend 5 million VND, then of course the remaining people only contributed 500 thousand VND each. Who wouldn't like to contribute 1 million VND to get half the profit? But in reality, it's "the fat it fries it". The ward boss takes the money from the ward's children and pays them back. Meanwhile, many people follow the ward but do not bid, do not buy, but only contribute money to get interest and plan to only pick up the ward in the last few times of the chain. But they never had their turn, because when the opportunist had collected all the money, he immediately declared bankruptcy.

List of guild players and the consequences of greed.

The gloomy atmosphere was the first feeling when we arrived at Mau 4 hamlet, Mau Tai village, Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district. There were still shadows of men and women standing and sitting on the doorsteps, along the pond banks. However, they were quiet and thoughtfully watching the houses of the guild leaders. Entering the house of Mr. Dang Xuan Tu - Head of Mau 4 hamlet, Mr. Tu said that the whole hamlet had 19 guild leaders from small to large. The story of the hui has been around for a long time but has been popular for nearly 2 years now with various forms of buying, selling, and bidding. There have been hundreds of households and individuals participating in the guild.

Mr. Dang Xuan Tu's wife, Mrs. Duong Thi Phuong, is also a boss. Following Mrs. Phuong's notebook, there are many pages and lines recording the names, lists, and amounts of money of many participants. In particular, we pay special attention to the name Nhung Thanh - a "ward girl" present in most of the hui chains owned by Mrs. Duong Thi Phuong. Mr. Dang Xuan Tu said that Mrs. Nhung Thanh, also known as Nguyen Thi Nhung in Mau 6 hamlet, Kim Lien - Nam Dan, is one of the active participants in the hui activities. Currently, Mrs. Nhung owes Mrs. Phuong about 250 million VND, owes Mr. Ha Huy Minh's ward in Mau 4 hamlet 1.1 billion VND, owes Mr. Dong (Thang) 570 million VND...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung's ward chain has from 3 to 6 quotas and she does not just follow one but many different wards. When meeting Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung when she was called to work by the Nam Dan District Police, she said that she could not remember how many wards she followed, how many times she bought and how much money she owed. Every time the deadline for contributing money to this ward came, Ms. Nhung bought another ward to pay for it. Just like that, the vicious cycle of "ward marking ward - ward raising ward" has been spinning crazily in the community of 6 residential hamlets from hamlet 1 to hamlet 6 of Mau Tai village.

To have money to contribute to the ward in the hope of earning unimaginably high interest rates (from 30 - 50%, even in some cases as high as 60 - 70% for one purchase), many people have pawned land titles, borrowed from relatives, borrowed at high interest rates... to buy dozens of ward shares without realizing that the interest rates were only "virtual" and the real debt they carried was getting higher and higher. And because the ward was virtual, bankruptcy was no longer a risk. Many people confirmed that Mau Tai village alone had up to 34 ward and hui bosses. Among them, ward bosses such as Chau Thi Hong (Mau 3 hamlet), Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha (Mau 4 hamlet)... The boss Chau Thi Hong went bankrupt for more than 11.9 billion VND, the boss Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha went bankrupt for about 6 billion VND. These were the amounts of money that the bosses used every means to mobilize from the "ward children" to transfer to an individual in Vinh City to get high interest rates. And when this subject "went away", everything fell apart, hundreds of families fell into poverty, debt piled up and insecurity and disorder existed.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Le Khac Thuyet, since the beginning of 2013, complicated signs of gambling in Kim Lien commune have been discovered. The district police have organized to go to the grassroots to propagate, mobilize, and explain, but people have ignored them. Some people even informed each other that they should not listen to the police force, because listening to the police will lose all the money that has been paid to the ward, so they secretly gamble to make a profit. And even when the matter was exposed, many people still tried to intervene with the district police to let the ward continue to operate to recover the money.

Right in Mau Tai village, there has been a phenomenon of debt collection, recklessness, lack of self-control causing disorder and insecurity. According to Lieutenant Colonel Le Khac Thuyet, the measure that Nam Dan District Police is applying is to continuously propagate in residential areas. In recent days, the district police have also called dozens of related subjects to the investigation agency for investigation and clarification. In addition, they have asked ward bosses and subjects who owe debts to people to remedy the consequences. Currently, Nam Dan District Police have coordinated with the Criminal Police Department of the Provincial Police and Kim Lien Commune Police to arrange a special task force to be on duty in Mau Tai village with the aim of ensuring security and order and preventing violations of the law.

Since November 27, 2006, the Government has issued Decree 144 on wards and hui, which clearly stipulates the rights, benefits, responsibilities... of the participants, and strictly prohibits the exploitation of wards and hui organizations for usury, fraud or abuse of trust to commit illegal acts. Also through the issuance of Decree 144, the Government has recognized this as a form of mutual assistance among the people and the participants are protected by law.

However, with the incidents that happened in Dien Chau, Nam Dan... now, whenever mentioning the ward, hui, everyone thinks that it is a problem that causes very bad consequences, because there are many families on the brink of collapse because of bankruptcy, brotherly relationships, traditional village affection is cracked. Standing at the gate of Mau 4 village, reading the two lines of parallel sentences: "Keeping the law of the country, family traditions are like keeping jade/Preserving village love, neighborly affection is like precious gold" it is sad to hear Mr. Ngo Canh Toan - Police officer of Mau Tai village reminisce: When will my village be peaceful again like in the past...?

Dao Tuan - Nhat Lan