Foreigners behind 3 loan shark companies

Aigars Plivčs (in black shirt) at the police station - Photo: Provided by the police

Overseas loan shark group

On June 17, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department's Staff Department said that the Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency is investigating a case of "loan sharking" in civil transactions through the websites tamo.vn and findo.vn by Aigars Plivčs (Latvian nationality, 38 years old, residing in Thu Duc City) and his accomplices in Ho Chi Minh City.

Since April 2023, Ho Chi Minh City Police discovered that the websites tamo.vn and findo.vn were established by Sun Finance Group (headquartered in Latvia), through three legal entities: Sofi Solutions Company, Digital Credit and Fincap VN to operate consumer lending in Vietnam.

These are electronic consumer finance lending websites, pre-programmed. Customers only need to log in to the website, fill in their full name, phone number, email address, monthly income, monthly expenses, ID card/CCCD number, account number, ID photo, front photo, and the system will automatically process the loan without having to directly contact any staff of the lender.

Customers will receive the loan transferred to their bank account. At this time, the system automatically creates three electronic contracts including a pawn loan contract and a property mortgage contract with Digital Credit Company, Fincap Company, and a consulting service contract with Sofi Solutions Company.

All these contracts are kept on the system, the parties do not sign anything on the contract. Each customer in the process of operating on the loan system will be guided to create an account on the system "tamo", "findo".

Customers can view their loan information by logging into the website tamo.vn, findo.vn or through the "tamo", "findo" applications on their phones.

Interest rate higher than 1,000%/year

Aigars Plivčs confessed to being an employee of Sun Finance Group headquartered in Latvia, the group that manages and operates all lending activities through two websites tamo.vn and findo.vn.

Although not the legal representative, Aigars Plivčs is the CEO of all activities such as lending, debt collection, cost management, and human resources through the Department Heads and Division Heads of the three companies.

Aigars Plivčs has a 2% stake in Sofi Solutions. Aigars Plivčs admitted that all three companies operate together, participating in lending through two websites. In which Sofi Solutions acts as a consulting unit, Digital Credit/Fincap VN is a consumer lending unit even though it is not licensed.

Aigars Plivčs also admitted that when customers borrowed through the two websites above, the company did not have any consulting or pawnbroking activities; admitted that it knew clearly that the interest rates of the loans were higher than 100%/year.

Aigars Plivčs hired legal representatives to establish the three companies. These companies were all directed by Aigars Plivčs to carry out usury in civil transactions.

The lowest lending interest rate of these companies is 401.5%/1/year; the highest is 1,379.7%/1 year, 20 to 68 times higher than the highest interest rate allowed under the provisions of the Civil Code.

The total amount of illegal profits that the District 10 Police Investigation Agency has proven through working with 29 borrowers is more than 780 million VND. Aigars Plivčs's behavior shows signs of usury in civil transactions.

According to Tuoi Tre