Abstract

Hụi is a traditional rotating savings and credit arrangement recognized under Vietnamese law as a property- related civil transaction, provided that it is established on a voluntary and consensual basis and serves the purpose of mutual financial assistance among participants. In practice, however, hụi arrangements have increasingly been abused as a means of committing fraudulent appropriation of property. This article examines the legal boundary between civil disputes arising from hụi relationships and the criminal offence of fraudulent appropriation of property. It clarifies the constituent elements that must be established, including deceptive conduct, the timing of the deception, the intent to appropriate property, the property appropriated, and the causal link between the deception and the victim’s transfer of property. Drawing on criminal enforcement practice in Vinh Long Province, the article identifies key difficulties in proving the offence, determining the legal nature of the conduct, distinguishing civil obligations from criminal appropriation, and recovering assets. On that basis, it proposes a coordinated set of measures to improve early identification criteria, enhance the effectiveness of criminal enforcement and asset recovery, strengthen grassroots-level state management, and prevent the abuse of hụi arrangements for fraudulent appropriation of property.

Keywords: Civil–criminal boundary; deceptive conduct; fraudulent appropriation of property; hụi transactions; Vinh Long Province.