Ho Chi Minh City Police on Wednesday detained 14 people from two debt collection companies to investigate the act of "appropriating property".
The accused were managers and employees of Vietnam Thinh Vuong Debt Trading JSC in Ward 1, Tan Binh district, and a branch of Young Generation Law Co., Ltd in Ward 15, Tan Binh district.
The police identified Nguyen Minh Thanh, manager of the former, and Tran Ha Anh Thu, head of the latter's credit department, as the ring leaders.
Ho Chi Minh City Police said that the investigating agency had received public petitions for help following threats from the debt collectors, along with disparaging posts on social networks.
"Even their friends, relatives, and workplaces were threatened by these people," the Ho Chi Minh City Police said.
In early March, the HCMC Police's criminal police department (PC02) in coordination with Tan Binh Police raided the headquarters of the two companies, arresting a number of people and seizing hundreds of computers and mobile phones containing important data.
According to the police, the two companies had purchased documents on customers from a financial company based in Hanoi.
At the investigative agency, Thanh confessed that employees of Vietnam Thinh Vuong Debt Trading JSC were divided into four teams, each of 7-10 people. Every month, an average employee made 2,500-3,000 threatening calls to collect debts mounting to VND2-3 billion ($127,200).
They sent a debt collection document to the borrower's home or workplace and threaten to sue or report them to the police for abuse of trust to appropriate property.
Ho Chi Minh City Police said that each month more than 100 people had to pay interest to this group, which received up to 86% from the financial company in Hanoi.
Due to these large profits, the leaders of debt trading companies have directed their employees to aggressively target victims with frequency and intensity.
The Ministry of Public Security and provincial police departments are working to dismantle debt collection lines hiding in the shadows of law firms and financial companies.