Hundreds of people in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau are at risk of losing large investments they made into a local company.

The upset investors have held gatherings at the Sao Vang Investment Consulting JSC headquarters in Vung Tau City over the past few days to demand their money back.

According to the investors, despite their holding signed investment cooperation agreements with the firm, the company has neither paid agreed-upon interest payouts since April nor allowed the withdrawal of original deposits since that month.

Angry investors at the gatherings have even turned to waving banners calling on Huynh Thi Ngan Trang, chairwoman of the management board of Sao Vang Company, to return the money.

According to their investment agreements, investors were promised a monthly interest payment of 1.5 to three percent. The company has failed to make those payments since April this year.

On June 14, Chairwoman Trang issued a notice declaring that the company would begin paying the interest owed from April and May on the following day. The payments never came.

Trang issued another statement on October 24 stating that the original deposits would be paid.

The deposits totaled over VND744 billion (US$32.7 million), the notice wrote, adding that the money would be returned over a period of two years starting from October 2, 2017.

The owed interest payouts will be paid from January 2020 to the end of 2021.

According to Nguyen Thi C., one of the disgruntled investors, Sao Vang Company has channeled the investment into 10 other companies to carry out projects related to online education, agriculture, movies, real estate, and others.

The firm also introduced a series of major projects when signing deals with clients, C. continued.

However, after investing money in the company, clients were never updated on how their money was actually being distributed, she elaborated.

The probe revealed that investors of Sao Vang come from all walks of life, including those who even mortgaged their houses to raise the capital needed to invest in Sao Vang in the hope of earning profits.

An official of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Police told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that over 600 residents have submitted denunciation forms.

The case is being investigated by the appropriate police division, the police official added.

During a phone interview on Wednesday, Chairwoman Trang said her company has established a plan to pay its debts, simply attributing the delay to “difficulties.”

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