A Vietnamese
company has pocketed hundreds of millions of dong by recruiting only pregnant
women, swindling them of their maternal benefits.
Along with headquarters in Can Tho City’s Cai Rang District, Online
Communication Limited Company has established different branches in Tra Vinh,
An Giang, Kien Giang, and Vinh Long.
Legal loopholes
Under the current regulations, women receive four months maternity
benefit if she pays for social insurance for six consecutive months within a
year before her leave.
The benefit includes a four-month full payment, which is calculated
based on her average salaries for six consecutive months before her leave, in
addition to an allowance equivalent to two months of her minimum salary.
Currently, social insurance payments account for 24% of employee total
monthly minimum salaries.
After discovering these legal loopholes, Doan Van Cuong set up the
Online Communication Limited Company as well as several branches in different
localities in the southern region.
He assigned his staff to travel to rural areas in order to look for
pregnant women and persuade them to provide personal information for social
insurance payments without having to work for the company. In return, they
promised to pay the women from VND2 million-VND4 million (USD95.46-USD190.93)
each following giving birth.
After negotiations Cuong and his accomplice completed procedures to pay
the entire social insurance payment to themselves. They started to file
applications for maternal benefits after the legally required six-month
payments.
Huynh Thi Ngoc Linh, director of Vinh Long provincial social insurance
agency, said they had uncovered the con trick after detecting Cuong’s company
working in Vinh Long’s Tra On Town.
The company had filed an application for maternity benefits for five women
worth VND119.5 million (USD5,704).
The fact that the company’s social insurance payments for these women
all were exactly a term of six months, the minimum requirement to gain
maternity benefits drew the attention of local insurers. They carried out an
inspection and detected that none of these women had worked for the company,
and that the women’s personal information had been exploited for their own
benefit.
Mass con
The company repeated the confidence trick in several south-western
localities.
Via a representative office in Tra Vinh Province’s Cau Ke District, the
company picked up the personal information of nine pregnant women for their
scheme.
After being detected, a victim admitted, “When I was a few months
pregnant, Cuong visited my houses and told me to provide him my personal
information in return for VND2 million (USD95.46) following giving birth, in
addition I would receive the same amount when my child was one year old. I
didn’t have to work for the company and they said they’d pay my entire social
insurance payments. I found it easy and agreed.”
The firm also opened another branch in Tra Vinh City’s Le Loi Street
and lured five other pregnant women to join their plans.
In order to multiply their profits, the firm quickly launched new branches
in other localities including Can Tho, An Giang and Kien Giang, pocketing
hundreds of millions of dong.
In Tra Vinh Province’s Cau Ke District, the company received over VND54
million (USD2,577) in maternity benefits on behalf of five local women, along
with over VND30 million (USD1,431) in Chau Thanh District and more than VND26
million (USD1.241) in Tra Vinh City.
Nguyen Trong Nam from the HCM City social insurance agency said
companies could earn a lot from this scheme by declaring very high payments for
non-existent staff. If they claimed that their staff were paid a maximum of
VND16 million (USD763.7) per month, they would receive maternal benefits worth
VND64 million (USD3,054) for the staff’s four-month maternal leave, in addition
to an allowance equivalent to a two-month minimal wage. The earnings were much
higher than their initial investment of having to pay social insurance of only
VND23.04 million (USD1,099) for six months.
In some cases, the company even filed applications for unemployment
benefits for the women six months after their maternity leave, pocketing more
money.
Tran Van Minh, Director of Can Tho City social insurance agency, said
Cuong had previously worked for the agency but had resigned to set up his own
company.
After being discovered, Cuong closed his representative offices in
several locations. Local authorities also said that his company had yet to pay
corporate income taxes as well as staff social insurance payments in recent
months. Cuong has since disappeared.
The Vinh Long social insurance agency has demanded that the police
investigate the case.
PLVN, dtinews.vn
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