Đặng Sỹ Phú, member of loan shark ring in HCM City, arrested after nearly two years of being wanted. — Photo courtesy of HCM City Police Department

THANH HÓA — Police in the central province of Thanh Hóa, in co-ordination with HCM City police, have arrested a member of a loan shark ring in HCM City after being wanted for two years.

Đặng Sỹ Phú, 34, living in HCM City, was arrested on charges of "usury in civil transactions".

Phú's loan shark ring – Nam Long Finance Company, was busted by Thanh Hóa police in September 2018.

Twenty-one defendants were then prosecuted and sentenced to prison for crimes of intentionally causing injuries, illegally detaining people and lending of loans with high-interest rates in civil transactions.

The leader of the ring, Nguyễn Đức Thành, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison.

According to the police, from the end of 2017 to June 2018, Thành and his accomplices had lent a total of VNĐ32.6 billion to 95 customers across the country with interest rates from 182.5 per cent to 365 per cent per year.

Thành's group made illegal profit of more than VNĐ8.6 billion.

Thành and his accomplices were also involved in intentionally causing injuries and illegally detaining people as they arrested and assaulted Nguyễn Văn Minh, the company's debt collector.

Minh was beaten until he lost consciousness and then he was taken to Thanh Hóa General Hospital. His colleagues left him at the hospital and he later died of his injuries. — VNS