A 41-year-old Russian man has been charged with operating six companies that offered app-based loans at usurious interest rates in Ho Chi Minh City.

Identified as Maksim Zubkov, the man was prosecuted and arrested by the municipal police on Tuesday.

The Russian was found to have managed and operated six loansharking firms, namely Phuc Loc Tho, Gofigo, Infobot, Infinity, Solution Lab, and Bao Tin Kim Long, according to the investigation results.

These companies shared the same human resources system, with their employees working together to offer unlawful consumer loans via websites such as sen***.vn, thanta***.vn, and cayde***.vn.

Police officers earlier raided the Thuy Loi 4 office building on Nguyen Xi Street in Ward 26, Binh Thanh District, where these companies are headquartered, and seized many documents as well as data linked to their unregulated lending activities.

According to a police report, these companies assigned each of the posts ranging from directors, managers, team leaders to staff members detailed tasks, such as advertising, seeking potential borrowers, giving instructions to borrowers to get loans via online platforms, verifying information of borrowers, and collecting debts, among others.

Regarding 42 borrowers who completed lending procedures for 247 transactions, the companies had charged them annual rates of between 183 percent and 2,555 percent, 10-to 128-fold higher than the upper limits stipulated by prevailing regulations, and made illegal gains of over VND442 million (US$18,755).

Following the investigation results, police decided to press charges against 22 members of these companies, including directors, managers, and team leaders, for their alleged involvement in the loan shark ring.​

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!