Agricultural purchasing agents "go bankrupt" and the consequences

Residents in Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, who were victims of the "bankruptcy" of Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency, filed a complaint to all levels and sectors requesting investigation and clarification of the case.

In recent times, although many agricultural product purchasing agents in the Central Highlands provinces have declared “bankruptcy” causing many consequences for farmers, why does this situation continue to occur? This is a painful and worrying issue not only for farmers but also for the government and functional agencies.

It has been a year now, dozens of households in communes of Krong No district, Dak Nong province and some localities of Dak Lak province have filed complaints and appealed to authorities and functional agencies of Krong No district and Dak Nong province to investigate, handle and recover a large quantity of coffee worth tens of billions of VND that they deposited at the Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency owned by Ms. Tran Thi Mai in Dak Luu village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district. While dozens of households are in dire straits, penniless and have to work for hire to survive, Ms. Tran Thi Mai and her husband, the agency owner, after declaring "bankruptcy", still live comfortably and freely in the locality.

From the people's distress call, we went to Dak Luu village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district in the last days of 2024, this is the peak coffee harvest season of the 2024-2025 crop and the coffee price is at a high level of around 120,000 VND/kg, but the atmosphere here is quite quiet, not as vibrant as every year. Many households are even more upset when they pass by every day and see the Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency "doors closed and bolted", outside hanging a sign for land for sale, but they do not know when they will be able to get back their billions of VND.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoan in Giang Dong 2 village, Buon Tria commune, Lak district, Dak Lak province, one of the victims of the debt default, said: Since 2021, through business relationships, he began collecting coffee from people in Dak Lak, Dak Nong , Gia Lai, Lam Dong provinces to sell to Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency. In the beginning, Ms. Tran Thi Mai, the owner of the agency, always paid for the purchase and sale fairly. Because of trust in each other's business, by the end of 2023, Mr. Hoan let Ms. Mai owe him up to 1.5 billion VND for buying coffee. After that, Mr. Hoan came to collect the debt many times, but Ms. Mai made appointments and gradually delayed the payment, then gave the reason that her son owed the mafia a large sum of money to pay. After that, she said that due to her long-term business losses, on January 9, 2024, she declared "bankruptcy" and was no longer able to pay the debts and stopped doing business.

“When I heard that Mrs. Mai declared “bankruptcy”, I and other households who had deposited coffee immediately went to Mrs. Mai’s agricultural product purchasing agency, but hundreds of tons of deposited coffee were empty, and the warehouse had been cleaned out. Since Mrs. Mai declared “bankruptcy”, my family has been in a very difficult situation, having to sell many assets and transfer the family’s house and land to pay off the bank debt. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai’s family still lives comfortably, eats well, dresses well in the locality, and whoever comes to collect the debt says that she is selling the land, house, and fields and working to pay them back gradually. Since then, Mrs. Mai has not paid anyone a single penny. When she saw us coming to collect the debt, she hid and did not meet us. When we called, she did not answer the phone. Although we have filed a complaint with all levels and sectors from the commune to the district and province about Mrs. Mai taking advantage of our trust to defraud and appropriate property, the case has not yet had a final conclusion,” Mr. Hoan said indignantly.

Mr. Luu Quang Mui in Dak Hoa village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, 72 years old, filed a complaint against Ms. Tran Thi Mai, owner of Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency, for taking advantage of trust to appropriate property.

As for Mr. Luu Quang Mui in Dak Hoa village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, he is 72 years old this year. Every day, besides taking care of his family's four sao of coffee, he does whatever jobs anyone hires him to do to make a living, because the money he and his wife saved to bring to the Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency to deposit coffee is considered lost.

Mr. Luu Quang Mui sadly recounted: In September 2023, he had to go back to his hometown in Hai Duong province for work. His wife, Mrs. Phung Thi Chieng, at home, brought the 141 million VND they had saved to close three tons of coffee beans with Mrs. Mai, at a price of 47 million VND/ton, and would liquidate the deal in December 2023. However, on December 31, 2023, when his wife came to liquidate the deal to get the money, Mrs. Mai kept making appointments and postponing the deal, and on January 9, 2024, she declared "bankruptcy" and was unable to pay.

“I don’t understand why my wife and many other gullible locals brought large sums of money and assets to deposit with the owner of Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency, and they only wrote a confirmation paper for them to take home. When they deposited, did they think about the consequences of today?”, Mr. Mui was upset.

Among dozens of people who were victims of the "bankruptcy" of the Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency in Tan Thanh Commune, Ms. Truong Thi Ngo in Nam Phuc Village, Nam Da Commune, Krong No District was the one who lost the largest amount of money, more than 12.7 billion VND.

Holding the complaint against the owner of Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency for taking advantage of her trust and appropriating a large amount of her money, Ms. Ngo's eyes were red and filled with tears. Ms. Ngo sobbed: "About three years ago, through a business relationship, I got to know and invested in business with Ms. Tran Thi Mai. To build trust, at first, Ms. Mai paid her bills fairly, so I borrowed money to buy coffee and invest in Mai's agricultural business. However, at the end of 2023, when she came to get the money, Ms. Mai kept owing and delaying the payment. As of January 7, 2024, Ms. Mai still owed me more than 12.7 billion VND and declared "bankruptcy" and was no longer able to pay. Since then, I have had to foreclose on my house, vehicles, and borrow 3 billion VND from the bank to pay off the debt to the company where I advanced the money to give to Ms. Mai."

Since the incident, Ms. Ngo and other victims have filed complaints to authorities and departments to investigate, handle and protect their rights, but so far there has been no final conclusion. When people came to collect debts, Ms. Mai kept saying that she was selling land, liquidating assets and gradually paying off debts, making people extremely upset.

Ms. Truong Thi Ngo in Nam Phuc village, Nam Da commune, Krong No district is the person who lost the largest amount of money, more than 12.7 billion VND, and filed a complaint.

According to local people, before declaring “bankruptcy”, in June 2023, Ms. Mai and her husband built and expanded a coffee drying kiln so that people could confidently bring coffee to deposit in large quantities. After finishing the 2023-2024 coffee harvest, on January 9, 2024, Ms. Mai declared “bankruptcy”, the reason being that her business was losing money and her son owed a large sum of money to gangsters, so she had to worry about paying off his debt.

According to local people, after declaring "bankruptcy", Ms. Tran Thi Mai still owes dozens of people tens of billions of VND. Households with large debts include Ms. Truong Thi Ngo in Nam Phuc village, Nam Da commune, Krong No district with a debt of more than 12.7 billion VND; Mr. Nguyen Van Hoan in Giang Dong 2 village, Buon Tria commune, Lak district, Dak Lak province with an amount of about 1.5 billion VND; Ms. Dam Thi Phuong residing in Dak Hoa village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district with 10,000 kg of coffee beans, worth about 680 million VND at the beginning of 2024; Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy in Dak Hoa village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district with 43,000 kg of coffee beans; Ms. Trinh Thi Hoa in Nam Xuan commune, Krong No district with 20,000 kg; Ms. Nguyen Thi Lieu in Dak Luu village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, 15,000 kg of coffee beans; Ms. Nguyen Thi Khuyen in Dak Lak village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, more than 1.1 billion VND and 2,000 kg of coffee beans...

Since the Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency declared bankruptcy, dozens of families have fallen into difficult circumstances, devastated, in debt, and forced to work as hired laborers to make ends meet.

Talking to us, Vice Chairman of Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee Luu Van Uat said: At first, many people came to Mrs. Tran Thi Mai's family to collect debts, cursed and caused disorder in the locality. After being propagandized and mobilized by the local government and police, the households sent petitions to all levels and sectors, requesting them to investigate, handle the case, and protect their rights. Recently, the security and order situation in the area has stabilized, Mrs. Tran Thi Mai and her husband still live in the locality, but the commune government does not know how the investigation and handling will be done.

Meanwhile, speaking with us, the leader of the Krong No District Police said: After receiving a complaint from the people denouncing Ms. Tran Thi Mai, residing in Dak Luu village, Tan Thanh commune, the owner of Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agency, for committing fraud and appropriation of property, due to the large number of complaints, the large amount of damage, causing public outrage, the District Police coordinated with the Tan Thanh Commune Police to verify, collect documents, work with related households and Ms. Tran Thi Mai, and verify the assets of Ms. Tran Thi Mai's family members...

On October 10, 2024, Krong No District Police issued Notice No. 164/TB-CAH on the results of verifying the citizen's petition, stating: The verification results determined that during the time of trading agricultural products, Ms. Tran Thi Mai's business establishment suffered losses due to sudden increases in agricultural product prices; poor management of purchases and sales; poor financial management; some people owed Ms. Mai money and had not paid; people fixed coffee prices with agents before harvest, but when the harvest time came, the coffee price suddenly increased and they did not sell to agents... In addition, Ms. Mai used the advance money from agents to do business and pay off previous debts, leading to insolvency and bankruptcy.

The results of asset verification of Ms. Tran Thi Mai's family members up to now show no signs of asset dissipation.

Based on the verification results, Krong No District Police determined that this was only a civil relationship, and there was not enough basis to determine that Ms. Tran Thi Mai had signs of committing fraud and appropriating property according to the provisions of Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017). We request that the relevant households file a lawsuit in a civil court to resolve and protect their rights according to the provisions of the law.

Disagreeing with the verification results of the Krong No District Police, the households who were victims of the "debt default" case continued to send a petition to the Dak Nong Provincial Police and relevant agencies, requesting an investigation and handling of the case of Ms. Tran Thi Mai, who showed signs of committing fraud and appropriating her property, and to serve as a general deterrent to society.

Mai Cau agricultural product purchasing agent hung a sign saying that land was for sale, but the contact name was someone else, making the residents angry.

In fact, in recent years, not only the Mai Cau Agricultural Products Purchasing Agency in Dak Luu village, Tan Thanh commune, Krong No district, Dak Nong province has declared "bankruptcy", but this situation has also occurred in all provinces of the Central Highlands. Each "bankruptcy" case has caused many families to lose everything, their homes to be destroyed, debts to pile up and disorder at the grassroots level... Meanwhile, most of the agricultural product purchasing agency owners after declaring "bankruptcy" have not been criminally prosecuted, because the authorities have verified that this is only a civil relationship, there is not enough basis to determine the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

This is the reason why many agricultural product purchasing agents in the Central Highlands, after opening, gaining trust and accepting large quantities of coffee and pepper from people, then declared "bankruptcy", pushing dozens of households into broken homes and heavy debt...

Therefore, authorities recommend that when farmers harvest coffee, pepper and other agricultural products, it is best to build warehouses for storage, not to consign them to agents, and if they sell, regardless of whether they are expensive or cheap, they should get the money immediately, especially in the current situation of skyrocketing coffee and pepper prices.

In addition, all levels and functional sectors also need to take measures to prevent and strictly handle agricultural product purchasing agents who show signs of taking advantage of people's trust, accepting agricultural products for deposit with large sums of money, then selling, dispersing assets and declaring "bankruptcy", pushing hundreds of households into broken homes and heavy debts... to protect the peace of the people of the Central Highlands.

Source: https://baodaknong.vn/dai-ly-thu-mua-nong-san-vo-no-va-nhung-he-luy-241812.html