Vietnamese workers caught up in job scam try to obtain justice, get money back

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More than 100 Vietnamese workers say they were cheated by a company that promised to send them to work in Japan and South Korea – but instead ran off with the money.
Hoang Minh Hieu, a man from Hanoi, said he submitted an application in October 2019 to tend dairy cows in both countries, which are in need of farm and other manual laborers, and was promised a trip to work overseas in 2020, but nothing happened.
“I had been waiting for the job for a long time,” he told Radio Free Asia. “As I had not received any updates about my flight schedule even after the social-distancing order was lifted, I decided to consult the Immigration Department about the company and my case.”
Hieu said he and others who submitted job applications each paid Hung Vuong Co. 30 million-280 million dong, or about U.S. $1,300-11,800, for jobs in East Asia.
But it turned out that the contracts they signed were fake, he said.
Hieu sent around a warning about the scam, but the company continued to cheat others.
Some applicants have filed complaints with the police against the Hung Vuong International Services and Trade Consulting Joint Stock Co., but nothing has happened.
The company, headquartered in Viet Tri, capital of Phu Tho province, is led by director general Nguyen Vo Lam. It also has a representative office in a residential building in Hanoi.
“As far as I know, it has appropriated around 2.7 billion dong from the victims,” or about U.S. $114,130, said Hieu, who compiled a list of known victims and the amounts they paid to the company.
Another victim, Tran Thi Thuong from Ha Tinh province, told RFA that the company, which she and her husband learned about via a Facebook ad, had collected fees at both the representative office in Hanoi and the headquarters in Viet Tri.
Her husband, Dinh Van Loi, paid 200 million dong out of a total 340 million dong required by the company for both of them to get a job tending to dairy cows in Japan for three years and earning 30 million doing each per month, she said.
But police in Nam Tu Liem district refused to pursue the case, citing insufficient evidence to deem it a fraud, Thuong said.
“I took the case to Nam Tu Liem district police many times but they have never been able to provide a satisfactory response,” she said, adding that the victims provided sufficient documents as evidence.
Hieu said he gave evidence to the police, including invoices and images and videos capturing Nguyen Vo Lam and Trieu Thi Tuan, another employee, acknowledging that they had received fees from victims and would pay them back the money.
Hieu did not provide the evidence to RFA, despite saying he would do so.
Turning the table on victims
In March 2020, more than 10 victims, including Hieu and Thuong, went to the home of Lam’s parents in Viet Tri to pressure him to pay back their money.
With agreement from the local police, the victims successfully forced Lam to travel back to his representative office in Hanoi.
But My Dinh Ward police officers appeared at the company’s office in Hanoi when the victims were getting Lam and Tuan to pledge to pay back the fees to them. Instead of supporting them, the police took the victims to a station for “unlawfully arresting people” and detained them until late that day.
Police released them after they agreed to settle the dispute with the company as a civil case.
But Lam and Tuan fled the same day, and no one knows where they are, Hieu said.
On their Facebook page, Hieu and some of the other victims pledged to give 10 million dong to anyone with information about Lam’s whereabouts.
Both Hieu and Thuong said they suspect that police have been covering up the company’s fraudulent acts.
“I think Nam Tu Liem district police have received bribes,” Thuong said. “They told us that they had not been able to arrest them, and they have not issued any warrants at all.”
RFA could not reach anyone at Hung Vuong Co. for comment. Nam Tu Liem district police and Viet Tri city police refused to provide information by phone to RFA.
Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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