On 20/7, Nguyen Anh Ngoc, 39, a pawn shop employee, was sentenced by the Hanoi People's Court to 11 years in prison. His charges included appropriation of property by fraud and using forged seals or documents of agencies and organizations.
Le Van Quan, 36, an accomplice of Ngoc, received 15 years and 6 months for the same two charges. Nguyen Van Nam, 33, residing in Ninh Binh province, was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for appropriation of property by fraud.
Meanwhile, Pham Van Son, 40, the pawn shop owner, received a 15-month suspended sentence for usury in civil transactions.
In 2022, Son operated a pawn shop in Dong Anh, Hanoi. He directly managed the lending activities and hired Ngoc as an employee. Ngoc's duties included finding clients, appraising assets, collecting interest, and managing overdue loans.
The indictment stated that during his employment, Ngoc discovered a loophole in Son's policy: the owner was willing to accept cars as collateral without requiring the original registration papers if ownership could be proven with other documents. If a car had original, legitimate documents, a larger loan amount would be offered.
Exploiting this loophole, Ngoc conspired with Quan to defraud the owner.
According to their plan, Quan rented self-driving cars from various individuals and brought these vehicles to the very pawn shop where Ngoc worked. To establish trust, Quan and Ngoc collaborated to create fake car registration certificates. They then used these forged documents in the pawn applications.
After receiving money from Son, Quan and Ngoc continued to provide false information, tricking him into releasing the cars, supposedly to return them to the clients. Nguyen Van Nam also participated in one pawn transaction involving a rented car, impersonating the car owner and signing a car sale document to help his two accomplices extract money from the owner.
Investigators determined that Quan and Ngoc executed this scheme four times, defrauding Son of 1,2 billion VND.
Believing the cars were Quan's assets, Son loaned over 1,5 billion VND at interest rates ranging from 109,5% to 182% per year. He illegally profited 125 million VND. Son's actions constituted the crime of usury in civil transactions.
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The defendants in court. Photo: Danh Lam |
In civil transactions, the maximum legal interest rate is 20% per year (equivalent to 1,666% per month) on the original outstanding balance, as stipulated by the Civil Code 2015.
Lending at interest rates of 100% per year or more, which is five times the maximum allowed rate, can lead to criminal prosecution for usury.
Hai Thu
