Dismantling a transnational loan shark ring

Entering Vietnam to operate "black credit"

Carrying out the peak of attacking and suppressing "black credit" crimes, through the work of managing the area and subjects, the Criminal Police Department discovered a group of foreigners colluding with Vietnamese subjects to establish hidden businesses, using high technology to operate "black credit" on a large scale.

The transnational loan shark system operated by foreigners opened a network to Vietnam. In addition to capital contributions from domestic subjects, there was also money brought back from abroad and money borrowed from foreign organizations... Considering the serious and complicated nature of the criminal gang, the Criminal Police Department directed the Major Crimes Department to establish a special project and apply synchronous professional measures to combat it.

The Criminal Police Department's Major Crimes Division is fighting to destroy a "black credit" ring led by Katerynchyk Roman.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Vinh Tung, Deputy Head of the Major Crimes Department, was assigned to coordinate with functional units to conduct the investigation and clarify the case. However, at the time of solving the case, the detectives encountered many difficulties because most of the subjects' operations were performed automatically through the CRM system programmed by the subjects, including appraisal and loan approval... so it was difficult to determine where the company was and who managed it. In addition, the subjects changed and established many different companies, divided them into many departments according to stages to conceal their criminal activities; using the trick of collecting fees instead of the actual interest that borrowers had to pay with a very high interest rate of up to thousands of percent per year. Notably, unlike traditional criminals, the subjects mainly had many criminal records... but some subjects in this ring were people with university degrees, and some were university lecturers... so when the authorities conducted regular administrative inspections, it would be difficult to detect and handle them.

After many days of investigation, using professional measures, the task force found many important "knots" of the case. On March 21, after identifying two foreigners directly involved in the management and operation of the above gang who had entered Vietnam, the Criminal Police Department presided over and coordinated with professional departments of the Ministry of Public Security , Ho Chi Minh City Police, and Khanh Hoa Provincial Police to simultaneously search and inspect 4 companies headquartered in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, including: IXORA Trading - Service Company Limited, address 20 Nguyen Dang Giai, Thao Dien Ward; Loc Tin Service Company Limited, address 140 Nguyen Hoang, An Phu Ward; CACTUS Consulting Service Company Limited, address 150 Tran Nao, Binh An Ward and VINEX Service Company Limited, address An Khanh Ward; and summoned 63 subjects. In addition, 68 laptops, 7 CPUs, 1 tablet, nearly 100 mobile phones and many objects and documents related to "black credit" activities were temporarily seized and accounts related to "black credit" activities of the above 4 companies were frozen.

Based on documents and evidence collected through the investigation and statements of the subjects, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency has identified the "black credit" activities of this criminal gang.

Accordingly, in 2019, Katerynchyk Roman (born in 1986, Ukrainian nationality), entered Vietnam and temporarily resided at 67 Mai Chi Tho Street, An Phu Ward, Thu Duc City. After that, Roman established Loi Tin Trading - Service Company Limited and colluded with Vietnamese subjects, including Le Thanh Huynh Cang (born in 1971, residing in Hiep Binh Chanh Ward, Thu Duc City) and Nguyen Thi Nhat Phuong (born in 1990, residing in Ward 1, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) to operate "black credit" through the Oncredit app and the website Oncredit.asia.com.

In early 2023, when seeing Vietnamese authorities fighting and strongly handling "black credit" gangs and in April 2023 Loi Tin Company was administratively inspected by the interdisciplinary working group of Thu Duc City People's Committee (chaired by Thu Duc City Police), Roman left Vietnam and directed Le Thanh Huynh Cang and Nguyen Thi Nhat Phuong to stop Loi Tin Company's operations.

Subjects: Katerynchyk Roman, Bugaevskiy Tymur and Kravchuk Iryna.

Set up 4 companies to lend money at high interest rates

After leaving the country, Roman continued to operate from abroad to Vietnam to establish 4 LLCs with different functions and tasks such as Ixora Trading and Service Company, specializing in customer care, file appraisal, and loan advertising; Loc Tin Service Company, specializing in disbursement and debt collection; Cactus Consulting Service Company, specializing in accounting and bookkeeping systems, and VINEX Service Company, specializing in collecting overdue debts. These 4 companies operate and operate a closed loan sharking process, creating an additional EasyCard app that operates in parallel with the Oncredit app.

Roman directed two Ukrainian nationals, Bugaevskiy Tymur (born in 1990) and Kravchuk Iryna (born in 1985), to enter Vietnam to manage the systems and technical processes of four companies.

Accordingly, Tymur is the data director, responsible for writing CRM data software, programming the borrower evaluation process of the CRM system. In addition, Tymur, together with the IT department of the companies, installed a security system, not allowing employees to arbitrarily connect to the company's computers or other internet connections, connect to external data storage devices, use cameras to identify and automatically disconnect from the server when detecting others using the software; automatically back up employee calls to evaluate indicators (KPIs), quality, work efficiency, calculate salaries, bonuses, etc.

This CRM software will automatically notify the debt collection department of Loc Tin Company of loans that are about to be due so that employees can call to remind them of the debt. Every day, the accounting department of Cactus Company copies transactions from the debt collection account, manually enters data into the CRM software so that the software can automatically clear the debt (if paid in full) or transfer the data to the overdue debt collection department (managed by Kravchuk Iryna) for further processing.

As for Le Thanh Huynh Cang, Roman assigned him to directly direct all activities of the four companies, directly in charge of Ixora Company, manage and operate the website, lending application and CRM system; as for Le Huy Hung, Nguyen Thanh Trung, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Xuong, Cang assigned them to be directors of Loc Tin, Cactus, and Vinex companies.

The remaining entities in the companies are divided into many departments such as: Telesale department for loan advertising; customer care, loan guidance; checking and evaluating borrowers; IT department; legal department in charge of opening companies, applying for licenses, checking contracts; human resources administration, recruitment, timekeeping, salary calculation, insurance... In terms of form, the above 4 companies operate independently, separating each stage to avoid detection and handling by authorities.

Initial results determined that from 2019, Roman gave Cang 400,000 USD for lending activities. By April 2023 (before being inspected by the interdisciplinary working group), Roman directed Loc Tin Company to continue receiving 11 million USD from Singapore's SCA Company and Cyprus' TAS Bank. Through collected documents, it was shown that the subjects had lent money to hundreds of thousands of customers, illegally earning thousands of billions of VND.

At 4 companies with nearly 100 employees, company leaders were paid by Roman from 20 to 55 million VND/month (depending on job position); employees from 7 to 25 million VND/month.

Transaction amount up to hundreds of billions of dong

The lending process of the subjects is very sophisticated, when customers need to borrow money, they must download the Easycash.vn and Oncredit.vn applications or go to the Oncredit.vn website to fill in all the information and register for a loan. The maximum first loan limit is 500,000 VND, the term is less than 5 days and does not charge interest or fees to attract customers when there are no customers, competing with other apps. For subsequent loans, the subjects use software to evaluate the "credibility" score of the borrower, the system will automatically approve loans from 500,000 VND - 20,000,000 VND, loan term from 5 to 30 days. In case the system warns, the subjects will interact with the customer via the telecommunications network and directly check.

For first-time loans, customers whose information meets 80% of the conditions of the customer relationship management (CRM) software will automatically transfer data to the loan application review department (IXORA Company). For customers who only meet 20% of the CRM conditions, there will be a verification and appraisal department. If qualified, the software will transfer to the loan application review department. From subsequent loans, the CRM software automatically calculates the "credibility" score based on the personal information and transaction history of the borrower already on the system (number of loans, loan limit, repayment reputation) as a basis for review and gradually increase the loan limit.

Upon receiving data from the CRM software, the subjects at IXORA Company will appraise and approve the loan application, and continue to update the approval information into the CRM system. From the second loan onwards, all loans are charged interest and fees, the total interest and fees combined are equivalent to an interest rate of 365% - 1,971%/year (depending on the customer's "creditworthiness" score, the system will automatically calculate the interest rate and fees for the borrower). For example: borrowing 800,000 VND for a term of 10 days, you must pay 1,232,000 VND. Accordingly, after approval, the system will automatically disburse to the borrower from the bank account number of Loc Tin Company.

In addition, based on the CRM system's loan due reminder feature, Loc Tin Company's staff will call to remind about debt (about to be due), collect debt (due, overdue), and request money transfer to Loc Tin Company's bank account. When the borrower pays into Loc Tin Company's account, Cactus Company's accounting department will be responsible for reconciling and updating data into the CRM system to delete the loan. If the loans are overdue for more than 30 days and the principal and interest have not been paid in full, Vinex Company's staff will call to collect debt at 3 levels (G1, G2, G3). For loans overdue for 90 days, Vinex Company will summarize and sell them to other entities to buy back at a price of 2-5% of the loan value...

In addition to Roman's initial amount (400,000 USD) and the illegal profits of Loi Tin Company, Roman directed Loi Tin Company to register and open a foreign exchange (USD) account at a bank in Vietnam to receive money from SCA Company in Singapore and TAS Company in Cyprus to use for "black credit" activities... Through collecting initial documents from the two above-mentioned apps, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency determined that there were hundreds of thousands of customers borrowing. Every month, the above account transacts with amounts up to hundreds of billions of VND.

The Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency has initiated a case and prosecuted 16 subjects for the act of lending at high interest rates in civil transactions. Among them are Le Thanh Huynh Cang, who, on behalf of Roman, managed all operations of 4 companies in Vietnam (contributed capital with Roman); Tymur helped Roman and Cang with app software technology; Iryna helped Roman and Cang manage overdue debt collection; Nguyen Thuy An helped Cang edit and complete software errors that arose during operation; Le Huy Hung (born in 1985, residing in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City); Nguyen Thanh Trung (born in 1990, residing in Binh Dinh province), Nguyen Thi Tuyet Xuong (born in 1992, An Giang province) are the directors and operators of 3 companies Loc Tin, Cactus, Vine.

The other 9 subjects are the departments of disbursement, debt reminder, debt collection, accounting, marketing, customer care including Ho Hoang Thanh Nha, Truong Thi Hien, Bui Tra Phuong Thao, Nguyen Nhu Quynh, Nguyen Thi Nhat Phuong, Nguyen Huu Vinh, Nguyen Masa, Nguyen Quoc Anh and Tran Thanh Hieu (assigned as team leaders to manage and operate IT departments).

cand.com.vn

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