Several SJC gold pieces. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Former TPBank vault manager Nguyễn Văn Linh has been charged with embezzling 246 taels of gold from the bank to fund stock and cryptocurrency investments.

The Hà Nội People’s Procuracy issued an indictment on Friday charging the 38-year-old with 'embezzlement of assets'.

According to the investigation, the TPBank vault held various assets, including cash, securities and gold, categorised as either trading, custodial or collateralised gold.

Custodial and trading gold were inventoried daily, while collateralised gold, which rarely experienced turnover, was checked semi-annually. This less frequent inspection reportedly led Linh to perceive an opportunity to exploit the system’s oversight.

Around mid-2017, Linh recognised that the collateralised gold in the vault seldom changed. With customers’ settlement dates well-documented, he devised a plan to substitute the collateralised gold for the trading and custodial gold he intended to steal.

Linh first targeted a large gold collateral, 246 taels pledged by a customer identified only as C. On July 5, 2017, he secretly removed the equivalent amount of SJC gold from the trading and custodial safes and concealed it in a metal box outside the main vault.

The following morning, he exploited a gap in security to retrieve and sell the gold, depositing the proceeds, valued at over VNĐ8.8 billion (US$348,000), into his securities account.

He then replaced the stolen gold with C’s collateralised gold until C repaid his loan in March 2019. He then took 246 taels from a DOJI-branded gold bag in the vault and used it to cover the shortfall once more.

As time went on, he repeated this tactic using another customer's gold collateral.

The scheme remained undiscovered until August 9, 2023, when H, a customer with collateralised gold used to replace Linh’s shortfall, sought to reclaim her gold.

Unable to provide an equivalent replacement, Linh turned himself in to the police, confessing to his crimes. — VNS