Aigars Plivės, 39, from Latvia, and other defendants face usurious lending charges at the HCM City People’s Court. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — A local court in HCM City has imposed a nearly three-year prison sentence on a foreign national for engaging in loan sharking practices, resulting in illicit profits exceeding VNĐ4.15 trillion (US$163.4 million).

Following a two-day trial, the HCM City People’s Court on Tuesday sentenced Aigars Plivės, a 39-year-old Latvian national, to two years and nine months in prison for operating three loan sharking firms in Việt Nam.

The court determined Plivės, an employee of Sun Finance Group based in Latvia, was guilty of “involvement in high-interest lending practices within the context of civil transactions.”

Several Vietnamese were also implicated in this case, including Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Sương, 56, director of Digital Credit Company, who received a sentence of one year and nine months, and Trương Tuấn Tài, 33, director of Fincap Vietnam, who was sentenced to one year and six months for similar charges. 

In addition, ten other individuals received prison sentences ranging from nine months to two years and six months for involvement in the case.

According to police investigations, Plivės was sent by a foreign corporation to create a lending network with exorbitant interest rates between 400 per cent and 1,379 per cent per year in Việt Nam. 

His operations were run through three foreign-owned entities (Sofi Solutions, Digital Credit, and Fincap Vietnam) and two websites (tamo.vn and findo.vn).

Investigations have revealed the high-interest loan operations were disguised as “pawn services.” 

Loan seekers had to provide personal information and documents on the website, where applications were processed automatically.

Employees verified the information and approved loans, which were then transferred to customers’ accounts. 

From April 2019 to now, the companies issued loans to over two million individuals, totalling more than VNĐ6 trillion (US$235.6 million), according to the police.

The police have identified 229 borrowers and collected statements from 28. — VNS