On Wednesday, the Da Nang People’s Court sentenced 42-year-old Nguyen Thi Phuong from Hai Chau District to 12 years in prison respectively for “defrauding money and appropriating property”.

According to the indictment from the city’s prosecutors, between September 2012 and May 2014, Phuong fraudulently obtained a total of 510 million VND from Mrs Truong Thi Kim Thoa and Mrs Nguyen Thi Dua, both of whom are Phuong’s neighbours.

During the period, Phuong also organised ‘hui’(a black credit scheme) which is a revolving fund with its money being pooled from different contributors.   The collected money was then lent to one of them on a monthly basis.  She got 436 million VND in total from 8 participants.  However, Phuong spent the collected money on shopping.  She was unable to return the money to them and then fled the city.