A businesswoman has attacked the Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) after an employee stole VND26bn (USD1.2m) from her account and the bank made no attempt to help her.
VP Bank deny responsibility after staff steal 1.2m USD
Quang Huan Investment and Development Company opened an account at VP Bank in late March 2015 and received VND26bn from its customers. In last July, director of Quang Huan Company Tran Thi Thanh Xuan wanted to withdraw the money and was shocked to find the money had gone. When she asked to check the account, the bank employees told her to change the registered signature, saying that her current signature was different.
According to the bank's records, Xuan had withdrawn or had someone cashed her cheques many times. But Xuan confirmed she hadn't used cheques. It was later found out that a VP Bank employee Doan Thi Thuy Hang forged a cheque. Hang's husband and two of friends had cashed the cheques.
In addition, Xuan registered to receive notifications by texts for bank balances and transactions but she hadn't received any messages during this time.
All submitted documents that was supposed to be written by Xuan actually written and signed by Pham Van Trinh, Thuy's accomplice. However, the documents have been photocopied, when Xuan asked the bank to let her see the original ones, the bank refused because of security reasons.
"If the bank really were that secured then I wouldn't have lost money," Xuan said.
After receiving the news, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee asked police and the State Bank of Vietnam in the city to quickly deal with this case. If encountering problems that are out of their authorisation, they were instructed to report the problems to the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, VP Bank said they had checked and confirmed that signature and stamp on the cheques and payment documents are the same with the signature and stamp used in the account opening application and they were done by Quang Huan's legal representative. Pham Van Trinh, who filled in the papers, is Quang Huan Company's accountant. VP Bank also confirmed that they had sent messages about changes in company's balance to Xuan.
VP Bank said they had worked with Trinh, his lawyer and Xuan on October 30 last year. However, it hasn't answered why Trinh didn't use his name if he was allowed to sign on behalf of Xuan or why he didn't go to the bank to fill in the papers.
Nguyen Thanh Long, deputy director of VP Bank said this was a serious case and promised to co-operate with agencies to deal with the problem. He went on to say that they had reported this case to the State Bank of Vietnam.
