Investigation into the loss of more than 53 billion VND from the "billionaire village" relic fund in Bac Ninh

On the afternoon of April 18, the leader of the People's Committee of Tu Son City (Bac Ninh) said that he had directed the Tu Son City Police and the People's Committee of Dong Ky Ward to verify and clarify the responsibilities of those involved in the loss of more than 53 billion VND in the relic fund.

Two days ago, the "billionaire village" of Dong Ky held an urgent meeting at the communal house yard to announce the incident.

At the meeting, Mr. Duong Van Hung (Head of the Supervisory Team of Dong Ky Village Relic Management Board for the 2024 - 2026 term) said that on February 27 of the lunar calendar, the Dong Ky Village Relic Management Board was newly elected, including Mr. Nguyen Van Dan (Head of the Board), Mr. Nguyen Khanh Chan (Accountant), Mr. Duong Van Hung (Head of the Supervisory Team) and Mr. Duong Van Muoi (Treasurer).

All four people in the field own savings books worth about 57 billion VND. This is the amount of money that Dong Ky people used to sell the Dalbergia tonkinensis tree in the communal house and set up savings books managed by the Dong Ky village relic management board.

While working at the cashier's house, Mr. Muoi reported that there were only two savings books left, number 13 worth 1.5 billion VND and book number 6 worth more than 2.5 billion VND. The remaining books worth over 53.3 billion VND, he had mortgaged to 3 banks with a loan of over 48.6 billion VND.

After borrowing over 48.6 billion VND, Mr. Muoi gave the mortgaged money to Mr. Duong Van Hoa (Head of Dong Ky Village Relics Board, term 2018 - 2023).

Mr. Hung said that when the incident was discovered, the Dong Ky village relic management board held an urgent meeting and invited the monitoring team, Mr. Hoa and Mr. Muoi to participate. During the meeting, Mr. Hoa admitted that he had lent the money to someone else, but had not yet recovered it.

"In the meeting, we found that Mr. Muoi was not qualified to be the treasurer. The conference temporarily elected Mr. Duong Van Hung as the treasurer, to help keep the people's savings book number 6 and savings book number 13.

After the meeting, the representative of the relic management board took Mr. Muoi to make a statement of the mortgage loan contracts. The total contract statement includes 1 book from the Industrial and Commercial Bank, 5 books from the Investment Bank and 8 books from the Agricultural Bank. The total amount of money Mr. Muoi mortgaged was 48.65 billion VND," said Mr. Hung.

At the meeting on the afternoon of April 16, Mr. Duong Van Muoi said that for the 2021-2023 term, he will be the treasurer, and Mr. Duong Van Hoa will be the Head of the Monuments Committee and account holder.

"At the beginning of 2021, Mr. Hoa asked me to borrow a few hundred million. I said this was the people's money, not mine, but Mr. Hoa said he would borrow it for a few days and then pay it back. After paying it back, Mr. Hoa asked to borrow a few billion for personal use. Because I respected Mr. Hoa as the head of the department and the account holder, I lent it to Mr. Hoa. August 2023 was the last time I lent Mr. Hoa money," Mr. Muoi said.

Explaining to the people, Mr. Duong Van Hoa confirmed that he borrowed more than 48.65 billion VND from Mr. Muoi. After that, Mr. Hoa lent Ms. Ngo Thi Phuong D. 39.45 billion VND and Mr. Nguyen Van D. 6.6 billion VND.

"I will fix it to pay the people both principal and interest within two years, without losing the people's money," Mr. Hoa promised the people of Dong Ky.