Investigators in Ho Chi Minh City are probing into a loan shark ring linked to two websites, namely tamo.vn and findo.vn, run by a Latvian man and his accomplices in the city, confirmed a municipal police official on Saturday.

In April this year, the municipal investigators discovered the two websites were launched by Sun Finance Group, a Latvia-based financial technology company, through the group’s three legal entities, namely Sofi Solutions, Digital Credit, and Fincap VN, to offer consumer loans in Vietnam.

Aigars Plivčs, 38, residing in Thu Duc City, under the jurisdiction of Ho Chi Minh City, admitted that he is an employee of Sun Finance Group, which manages all lending activities of the two websites.

Plivčs is not the legal representative but he serves as CEO in charge of overseeing all activities of the three businesses, such as lending, debt collection, cost management, and human resources.

The Latvian man confessed that he holds a two-percent stake in Sofi Solutions Company.

He added that the three firms are jointly involved in lending activities via the two websites, with Sofi Solutions serving as a consulting unit, while Digital Credit and Fincap VN offer loans, despite being unregulated.

He also confessed that the companies in reality provided no consulting services for borrowers as well as offered extremely high interest rates of over 100 percent per year.

According to the Latvian, he hired some individuals to serve as the legal representatives to establish the three businesses to run the loan shark ring.

These lending businesses were found to have offered annual interest rates at the minimum of 401.5 percent and at the maximum of 1,379.7 percent, 20-68 times higher than the rates set by the prevailing regulations.

The investigators in District 10 questioned 29 borrowers and discovered these firms made illicit gains worth over VND780 million (US$33,156).

To apply for loans from the two online lending platforms, customers were required to log in to each website, fill in their personal information such as full names, phone numbers, email addresses, salary, bank accounts, ID numbers, photos of their IDs, and facial images for ID verification, without a need to contact any staff member of the lender.

Borrowers will get loans transferred to their bank accounts.

The online lending platforms will make three electronic contracts, including one pawn loan contract and one mortgage contract with Digital Credit and Fincap companies, and one consulting service contract with Sofi Solutions Company.

All of the contracts are saved on the online lending system, with the parties involved signing nothing on them.

During the lending process, each customer will be instructed to create one account on each of the websites or via the 'tamo,' 'findo' mobile apps through which they can view their lending information.

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