HANOI: Vietnamese police have raided a financial firm believed to owe nearly US$150 million to investors after hundreds of people gathered outside its offices demanding their money back, state media said on Monday (Nov 11).
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said in a statement that they were investigating GFDI Company, a financial investment consultancy, over “illegal capital mobilisation and fraud”.
Days earlier, around 300 people – many from other provinces – with money tied up in GFDI had protested in front of the firm’s headquarters and other offices in the central city of Danang, state-controlled news site VNExpress said.
Demonstrations in communist Vietnam are relatively rare.
The MPS said in its statement issued on Saturday that the company, which set up in Danang in 2018, owed 7,500 customers a total of US$147 million.
GFDI had been borrowing money from people through property lending contracts at high monthly interest rates, the MPS added.
