What are the penalties for Illegal trading of information about bank accounts in Vietnam

1. What is a bank account? What are the types of bank accounts?

A bank account is an asset provided by the bank to customers in the form of a series of numbers for the purpose of depositing money to perform financial transactions with two main purposes: payment and savings. An individual can have multiple bank accounts.

Currently, there are two types of bank accounts commonly used, which are checking accounts and savings accounts.

- Payment account: This is the account the customer uses to deposit money, which by default authorizes the bank to manage it or asks the bank to pay service bills, transfer money, etc. This account is used to receive salary or to conduct business...Deposits in the current account, if not used, are periodically paid interest by the bank. In which case, the applied interest rate is the interest rate on demand deposits.

- Savings account: An account where customers deposit money to make profitable investments. This interest can be received immediately upon deposit or periodically, as agreed. Savings accounts can be divided into many limits, and there is no limit to the number of open registrations.

2. What is illegal trading in bank accounts?

Due to the increased demand for credit payment methods by organizations and individuals, the phenomenon of illegal trading and trading of bank accounts for profit takes place more and more.

The illegal trading of bank accounts manifests itself in the gathering and agreement of the parties to exchange information.Thus, the seller provides information to the buyer about the account number that he has obtained from many sources and is paid in money or other kind to gain illicit profits or other illegal purposes.

Most of the subjects bought back other people's bank account information to take advantage of the trust to commit fraud or transfer appropriate money through these accounts.

3. Penalties for illegal trading of bank accounts

Illegally buying and selling bank accounts to gain illicit profits is considered a violation of the law. Therefore, the law of our country has specific provisions on penalties for this type of behavior.

3.1. Penalties for administrative violations

Clause 5, Clause 6, Clause 10, and Article 26 of Decree 88/2019/ND-CP stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of currency and banking stipulate:

"5. A fine ranging from VND 40,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

a) lending from 01 to under 10 checking accounts with or without charges;

b) forging documents when providing or using payment services, if not liable to criminal prosecution.

6. A fine ranging from VND 50,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 shall be imposed for committing one of the following violations:

…

b) lending 10 checking accounts or more with or without charges;

…

10. Remedial measures:

a) Enforced transfer of benefits illegally obtained from any of the administrative violations prescribed in Clauses 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of this Article to state budget;

…"

Thus, acts related to bank account transactions such as leasing, borrowing, buying, selling, etc. that are not to the point of criminal prosecution shall be fined up to 100 million dong and at the same time remitted into the state budget along with the illicit profits obtained from these acts.

3.2. Criminal prosecution

Acts of exchanging, buying, and selling with less than 50 accounts or illegally earning between 20,000,000 VND and 50,000,000 VND may be prosecuted for criminal liability.

Specifically, Article 291 of the Criminal Code 2015 provides:

"Any person who  illegally collects, possesses, exchanges, trades, publishes information about other people's bank accounts with a quantity of 20 - 49 accounts or earns an illegal profit of from VND 20,000,000 to under VND 50,000,000 shall be liable to a fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 or face a penalty of up to 03 years' community sentence." 

Signs of a crime:

- Objects: infringing upon the property ownership rights of agencies, organizations or individuals; order of state management in the field of information technology, telecommunications network and the field of finance and banking.

- Subject: a person aged full 16 years or older, having the capacity to bear penal liability

- The objective side: illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, buying and selling information about other people's bank accounts. Buying, selling, exchanging with the amount from 20 accounts to less than 50 accounts or illegally earning from 20,000,000 VND to less than 50,000,000 VND

- The subjective side: the crime is committed with direct intentional error, that is, the offender is well aware that his act is dangerous to society, foresees the consequences of that act and wants the consequences to happen. go out.

Penalty frame:

- Basic frame: a fine of from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 or non-custodial reform for up to 3 years.

- Frame 2: A fine of from VND 100,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 or imprisonment from 3 months to 2 years in one of the following cases:

+ Illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, buying, selling, or publicizing information about other people's bank accounts in quantities ranging from 50 accounts to less than 200 accounts;

+ Organized;

+ Be of a professional nature;

+ Gaining illicit profits from VND 50,000,000 to under VND 200,000,000;

+ Dangerous recidivism.

- Frame 3: A fine of from VND 200,000,000 to VND 500,000,000 or imprisonment from 2 to 07 years in one of the following cases:

+ Illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, buying, selling, or publicizing information about other people's bank accounts with a total of 200 accounts or more;

+ Illegal profits 200,000,000 VND or more.

- Additional penalties: a fine of between VND 10,000,000 and 50,000,000, a ban from holding certain posts, practicing certain professions or doing certain jobs for 1 to 5 years, or confiscating part or all of property. .

Thus, depending on the nature and severity of the behavior, anyone who illegally trades in bank accounts may be prosecuted for criminal liability with a fine of up to VND 500,000,000 or imprisonment for up to 7 years.

4. Judgments on illegal trading of bank account information

Below are some convictions for the crime of illegal trading of bank account information that have been tried in practice; please refer to them for more information:

Sentence for illegal trading of other people's bank account information No. 52/2021/HS-ST

Verdict on illegal trading of bank account information No. 02/2022/HS-ST.

Best regards!

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