The Star Malaysia

Loan shark bites back at Vietnamese who recommende­d ‘clients’

- By ROYCE TAN roycetan@thestar.com.my Watch the video thestartv.com

KUALA LUMPUR: A Vietnamese woman, who has been receiving commission­s for recommendi­ng “clients” to a loan shark, is now being forced to pay RM230,000 after the borrowers were deported back to Vietnam.

Kim, 21, and her Malaysian husband CJ, 29, are now being hounded by debt collectors.

They are even threatenin­g to go after CJ’s parents for the money even though Kim did not act as a guarantor for the borrowers.

One of the debt collectors had sent a WhatsApp message to CJ warning there will be no more chance to talk if he did not “come out and discuss”.

They even sent him photograph­s of family members, their personnel details such as MyKad and contact numbers, addresses along with their vehicle number plates.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said it looked like the informatio­n was obtained from the Road Transport Department.

“These details are supposed to be confidenti­al. How can the debt collectors get this? Who was it from JPJ that gave them the details?

“I tried calling the debt collector many times but there has been no response until now,” Chong said.

Kim had introduced 12 of her fellow countrymen, most of whom were guest relations officers (GROs), to the loan shark – a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman.

The 12 Vietnamese borrowers, who are believed to have been nabbed by authoritie­s in May, have since been deported back to their country.

The Ah Long then engaged debt collectors to go after Kim and her family.

The amount borrowed by her friends were RM193,000 but the “interest charges” pushed it to RM230,000.

Kim previously received RM400 in commission for every RM10,000 borrowed from Ah Long.

“I told her ( Ah Long) I never wanted to be the middleman but she kept insisting because she did not know the borrowers,” said Kim.

She got to know the Ah Long, who is also married to a Malaysian, in December last year via a group chat.

CJ said he was not even aware of his wife’s activities until debt collectors came knocking on their doors in Bukit Jalil recently.

Chong urged the debt collectors to be “more profession­al” and not

to harass CJ’s family members as they had nothing to do with the whole issue.

This is Chong’s 194th loan shark case this year, involving an amount totalling RM17.3mil.

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pay: Chong (right) holding a press conference together with the Vietnamese woman and her family.
‘Helping’ does not pay: Chong (right) holding a press conference together with the Vietnamese woman and her family.
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