The Ministry of Public Security has completed its investigation into a case in which a former banking official, in collusion with others, swindled many individuals and banks of nearly VND4 trillion (US$188.7 million), and proposed that the Supreme People’s Procuracy prosecute 23 defendants. Accordingly, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, 35, former deputy head of the Risk Management Department of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), is charged with “abusing trust to appropriate assets” and “counterfeiting seals and materials of agencies and organizations.” Along with Nhu, five other ex-officials of Vietinbank are charged with “violating lending regulations in operations of credit organizations.” Prominent among the other defendants is Pham Huu Chi, a loan-shark from HCMC, who is charged with “lending upon usury.” According to the investigation’s results, in early 2007, Nhu, abusing her position and trust, mobilized more than VND200 billion ($9.43 million) in capital from many banks, organizations and individual at high interest rates to invest in real estate business in HCMC, Da Nang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Da Lat, Quang Nam and An Giang. In order to pay the loans, since 2008 Nhu borrowed money from Chi at exorbitant interest rates of 0.5-0.6 per cent per day, which is over 10 times higher than the highest lending rate regulated by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) at that time.  The total loans Nhu received from Chi amounted to VND17.5 billion, and Chi had earned VND6 billion as interest on the principal, investigators said. Two years later, Nhu began to fall into insolvency and thought of swindling to get money to repay her debts. From March 2010 until September 2011, Nhu, under the false pretext of mobilizing capital for two Vietinbank branches, obtained loans totaling VND4,911 billion from nine companies, three banks and three individuals. Of these funds, Nhu used more than VND925 billion to repay her previous loans and the interest thereon to four of her creditors, and appropriated the remaining amount, investigators said. Among Nhu’s victims are Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), Nam Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank and the Vietnam International Bank’s HCMC Branch. During the process to get the above loans, Nhu forged nearly 200 documents, including 110 false contracts between Vietinbank’s Nha Be Branch and businesses. Notably, besides Chi, Nhu had also borrowed from another loan-shark, Nguyen Thi Phuong Hoai Trung, who had lent Nhu at interest rates that were 10.66 times higher than that of the SBV, investigators said. The total amount of interest Trung received from Nhu amounted to VND660 billion ($31.1 million). However, as Trung has gone abroad, the Supreme People’s Procuracy has canceled the decision on prosecution against Trung, according to the investigation agency.