Police in Thanh Hoa Province, north-central Vietnam on Friday announced the arrests of 17 members of a loan shark group where debtors were forced to pay interest rates of up to 600 percent per annum.
Investigators in the provincial capital city of Thanh Hoa on the same day filed charges against the 17 for their involvement in illegal money-lending activities.
Previously, 13 members of this loan shark operation were arrested during simultaneous raids on their residences, mostly located in Thanh Hoa City, where officers seized 12 mobile phones, 37 loan contracts, four cars, VND477 million (US$18,700) in cash, and various loan-related documents.
Further investigations led to four additional suspects, who are also residents of Thanh Hoa City, being arrested.
The suspects, aged 22-55, admitted to lending money to many residents citywide since June this year at daily interest rates of VND3,000-20,000 ($0.11-0.78) per VND1 million ($39), equivalent to 100-600 percent annually, raking in over VND1 billion ($39,300) in illegal profits.
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