Latvian man sentenced in Vietnam for operating loan shark ring with 1,380% interest rate

Aigars Plivěs, a Latvian national, on Monday was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for operating three companies that offered loans with high interest rates of 401-1,379.7% per year, earning illicit gains of more than VND4.15 trillion ($163 million).

After two days of trial at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, Plivës, a 39-year-old employee of Latvia-headquartered Sun Finance Group, was found guilty of lending at high interest rates in civil transactions.

In the same case, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Suong, 56, director of Digital Credit Company, was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison; and Truong Tuan Tai, 33, director of Fincap Vietnam Company, received one year and six months behind bars.

The other 10 defendants were sentenced to between nine months and two years and six months for the same crime.

According to the indictment, Aigars Plivės was an employee of Sun Finance Group, based in Latvia. Under the direction of Sun Finance, in 2018, Plivės came to Vietnam to operate high-interest loan activities through three companies, namely Sofi Solutions, Digital Credit, and Fincap VN.

Between 2019 and 2021, Plivės managed lending operations through website tamo.vn, and in 2021, he was also in charge of loan operations through findo.vn.

Sun Finance developed and programmed the two websites, tamo.vn and findo.vn, and managed all customer data and loan information stored in a secure software designed to prevent employees from downloading or copying any data from the platforms.

Clients who wished to borrow money only needed to log into the websites; fill in their personal details, monthly income and expenses; and upload identification photos.

The system would then automatically approve the loan without any direct contact with lender’s staff. After the loan was approved, the money was disbursed automatically to the client’s account.

Three electronic contracts were created by the system, including one loan contract, a mortgage agreement between Digital Credit and the borrower via tamo.vn or between Fincap and the borrower via findo.vn, and a service consulting agreement with Sofi Solutions. All contracts were stored electronically, with no physical signing.

When customers borrow a loan, they only need to enter the loan amount and term, and the system will automatically calculate the interest and fees to be paid.

When the loan reaches its due date and the borrower fails to repay, they can go to the website to extend the loan by 5, 10, or 15 days, up to a maximum of 30 days, and will be required to pay an extension fee.

These additional fees are set in a way that generates profits for the three companies, similar to the interest charged on the loans.

Initially, Digital Credit disbursed loans directly to customers, but from September 2019, they shifted to disbursing through third-party platforms like Bao Kim and Momo.

As the investigation unfolded, police uncovered an organized, large-scale loan sharking operation conducted through two websites: tamo.vn and findo.vn. The operation was run by Sofi Solutions Co., Ltd., with loans disbursed by Digital Credit Company. and Fincap Vietnam Company, which masked their activities as pawn services and financial consulting.

Police extracted data on 229 borrowers and took testimony from 28 individuals. The investigation revealed that the lending companies charged interest rates as low as 401.5% per year, and as high as 1,379.7% per year, earning VND4.15 trillion ($163.35 million) in illicit profits.

Aigars Plivës began running the usurious lending operation from June 2020 to April 2023, earning a monthly salary of VND120 million ($4,724) and illicitly profiting VND4.2 billion ($165,322). The other defendants had illicit profits ranging from VND220 million to VND4 billion.