Lam Thi Thu Em, 54, used her smoothie shop as a front for a loan sharking operation with interest rates up to 360% per year; most of her customers came to make payments, not buy drinks.
Despite additional restitution payments, Tran Van Chau and Ho Quoc Hung, the masterminds behind an extortion scheme targeting over 170,000 people, have had their appeals denied.
Tran Hong Tien and 44 employees received prison sentences for debt collection practices that involved death threats, manipulated obscene images, and psychological harassment of borrowers and their families.
Tran Hong Tien, executive director of a network of seven debt collection companies, claimed he only heard his subordinates speaking "loudly" to clients on the phone but was unaware they were making threats.
