The gold shop in Yen Thanh self-issued savings books: Victims requested to review the case!

Proposal to cancel the decision not to prosecute the case

In mid-January, representatives of households lost money after depositing savings atPhuc Nhien gold and silver enterprise(Bao Thanh commune, Yen Thanh) said that they have sent a petition to the competent authorities requesting to cancel the decision not to prosecute the case and consider the responsibility of those conducting the proceedings. This is the latest move related to the case of Phuc Nhien gold shop self-issuing "savings books", mobilizing deposits from hundreds of people and then declaring "bankruptcy", no longer able to pay, which Nghe An Newspaper has reported many times.

In this petition, the victims' representatives request that the competent authorities consider the severity of the case to prosecute, investigate, and prosecute the criminals in accordance with the law; and consider the responsibility of those who conducted the proceedings in this case for letting criminals escape.

This has been a long-standing issue for many years, affecting local security and order. There have been many clashes between gold shop owners and people who lost money, some even causing serious injuries to people.

After the gold shop owner declared “bankruptcy”, many people filed a complaint with the Yen Thanh District Police. On August 21, 2018, the district police issued a decision not to prosecute the criminal case. The police agency stated: “After checking and verifying the source of information about the crime, it was found that the act of mobilizing capital from 164 citizens through issuing savings books and using the mobilized capital to lend to others at higher interest rates, but up to now, the capital has not been recovered to pay the principal and interest to the depositors of Ms. Ta Thi Lien - Owner of Phuc Nhien Gold and Silver Enterprise does not constitute a crime”.

The households then filed a complaint, but Yen Thanh District Police still maintained their decision not to initiate criminal proceedings.

Disagreeing with this decision, representatives of the households continued to send a petition to the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh district. In the petition, the people once again requested to prosecute the case and prosecute the couple who owned the Phuc Nhien gold shop for fraud and property appropriation, because they believed that this gold shop raised capital in the form of issuing "savings books" and appropriated money from many people, while not being allowed to raise capital.

Verification results of the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh district show that from around 2012 to December 2016, Phuc Nhien enterprise received deposits from 164 people with an amount of more than 24 billion VND, with a term of 3 months, interest rate of 7.5% to 8.5%/year. During the process of receiving deposits, this enterprise gave people a type of savings book printed by Phuc Nhien enterprise itself, the form is similar to the type of book issued by banks. Inside the book is recorded the deposit amount, deposit time, interest rate... with the signatures of both parties and the seal of Phuc Nhien enterprise.

“For the money mobilized from the people, Phuc Nhien Enterprise lent it to others to get the interest difference and used it for business purposes. Accordingly, in addition to the money used for gold and silver trading, Phuc Nhien Enterprise stated that it had lent 18 other people a total of more than 74 billion VND and has not yet recovered it; currently the family and the enterprise do not have any valuable assets so they are not able to pay back the money to the people. The amount of interest that Phuc Nhien Enterprise received from the loans cannot be counted because there are no books or documents kept,” concluded the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh District.

The Procuracy believes that the amount of money that Phuc Nhien Enterprise lent “is larger than the amount that this enterprise has raised and is owed to the people. Therefore, there is no basis to determine that Phuc Nhien Enterprise is dishonest in using the money to appropriate”. Therefore, the People’s Procuracy of Yen Thanh District believes that the police agency did not initiate a criminal case on the grounds that the act did not constitute a crime, which is in accordance with the law.

Need to review the case

Believing that the prosecution agencies in Yen Thanh district let criminals escape, representatives of households continued to send petitions to competent authorities, including the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province.

After receiving the petition, on December 15, 2021, the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province forwarded the petition to the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province to review the decision to resolve the complaint of the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh district. A few days later, the People's Procuracy of the province issued an official dispatch reporting on the settlement of the petition.

Accordingly, after studying the petition, the Provincial People's Procuracy found that the petition contained many new contents and details that needed to be verified and clarified, so it forwarded the petition to the Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency for settlement according to his authority. However, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation has not yet received a written response regarding the settlement results.

Representing the households, lawyer Chu Thanh Hai - former Deputy Chief of the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh district said that the owner of Phuc Nhien gold shop committed crimes such as Fraudulent appropriation of property, stipulated in Clause 4, Article 174 of the Penal Code; Crime of Violating banking activities, other activities related to banking activities, stipulated in Clause 4, Article 206 of the Penal Code; Crime of Violating accounting causing serious consequences, stipulated in Clause 3, Article 221 of the Penal Code.

According to the former Deputy Chief of the People's Procuracy of Yen Thanh district, the case of Phuc Nhien gold shop is similar to the case that happened at Tam Nham gold and silver enterprise (Cong Thanh commune), more than 1km away. The owners of these two gold shops both printed "savings books" without permission, then mobilized tens of billions of dong from people and then declared that they "could not pay" at the same time. This caused hundreds of people in Yen Thanh district to suffer indignation, many households fell into bankruptcy and debt. "These two cases are copies of each other. If the competent authorities do not handle them seriously, it will set a very bad precedent. Many others will also learn from that trick to mobilize people's money and then appropriate it," Mr. Hai stated his opinion.

Analyzing the signs of crime, Mr. Hai said that it was the “stamped savings book” that made people mistakenly believe that this gold shop was allowed to raise capital, “thinking the fake was real to hand over the property”. This is a characteristic of fraud. The subsequent actions such as paying interest fairly at the beginning, with interest rates much higher than banks, were to strengthen the trust of the victims.

“According to the conclusion of the prosecution agencies, the money this gold shop raised was lent to others and has not been recovered yet. However, in reality, this business did not lose capital, because whoever borrowed from them had to have land as collateral, and it was not secured at all. The value of the collateral is always higher than the amount of money the business gave to the borrower. If the borrower does not pay by the end of the term, the collateral belongs to the gold shop,” said Mr. Hai, adding that the actions of the owner of Phuc Nhien gold shop as well as the owner of Tam Nham gold shop violated the property rights of others, and at the same time violated monetary security. In addition, the lawyer also said that the owners of these gold shops also committed crimes such as usury in civil transactions, because after receiving deposits from people, they used that money to lend to others at higher interest rates to enjoy the difference. Forged documents of agencies and organizations when arbitrarily printing savings books to deceive people./.