Arrested for lending money to nearly 100 people at 'exorbitant' interest rate of 432%

On February 3, the Investigation Police Agency of Dien Ban Town Police (Quang Nam Province) issued an order to temporarily detain Nguyen Kim Long (43 years old, residing in Group 8, Sai Dong Ward, Long Bien District, Hanoi City; temporarily residing in Dien Minh Ward, Dien Ban Town) to investigate the crime of Loan sharking in civil transactions.

Police read the emergency detention warrant for Nguyen Kim Long. (Photo: Quang Nam Police)

Previously, in July 2023, Long moved from Hanoi to Dien Ban town to rent a house to live. Long did not have a stable job, so he often went to markets, small traders, and retailers to meet and get to know people.

Realizing that Long had many suspicious signs of loan sharking activities, the police concentrated their forces, collected information, and clarified suspicions about this subject.

After the verification process, on January 30, 2024, the Investigation Police Agency of Dien Ban Town Police issued an order to detain the person in an emergency and searched Long's residence in Trung Phu 1 block, Dien Minh ward. Here, the police agency seized many books and documents showing the content of loan sharking.

At the investigation agency, Long confessed that from July 2023 to now, he has lent money to nearly 100 people, with interest rates ranging from 108% - 432%/year in the form of daily installment loans. The amount of money Long illegally profited is up to hundreds of millions of dong.

Most of Long's borrowers are small traders and merchants in the communes and wards of Dien Ban town and Hoi An city (Quang Nam province).

Currently, the investigation agency is criminally detaining Nguyen Kim Long, while consolidating documents and evidence to handle him according to legal regulations.

Previously, on February 2, the Investigation Security Agency of Quang Nam Province Police prosecuted 47 defendants to investigate the act of lending at high interest rates in civil transactions.

The 47 defendants prosecuted this time are part of phase 2 of a loan sharking case in civil transactions worth more than VND20,000 billion, which was investigated and dismantled by Quang Nam Provincial Police in coordination with the Ministry of Public Security's professional departments and local police in July 2023.

According to investigators, this loan sharking ring has organized loans for more than 1 million people nationwide through mobile phone applications, with interest rates of more than 2,300% per year.

Initial determinations show that the amount of money lent at high interest rates amounted to more than VND20,000 billion, illegal profits were more than VND8,000 billion; money laundering and illegal transfer of illegal profits out of Vietnam amounted to more than VND5,000 billion.

UNIFIED

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