FOODOFVIETNAM.COM HANOI, Vietnam – Several high bidders at a charity auction have refused to pay the millions they pledged to help flood victims in central Vietnam, a Red Cross official said Tuesday.
Last month's event held in Ho Chi Minh City auctioned off luxury items including a bronze drum, a gemstone painting, a 22-pound (10-kilogram) raw ruby and fossilized wood artworks featuring a dragon, unicorn, turtle and phoenix.
About 90 Miss Earth 2010 contestants from around the world attended the event, along with representatives of local businesses.
But several people who called in high bids by telephone during the auction have since refused to pay as has a businessman from Hanoi who attended the event and won the wooden artworks with a bid of $2.3 million, said Nguyen Thi Hau, president of the Red Cross in Ho Chi Minh City.
The man backed out of his bid and instead promised to contribute 1 billion dong ($48,000) to the flood victims, Hue said. So far, the Red Cross hasn't received any money from the man whom they cannot reach.
There is no indication that those who failed to honor their pledges were working together.
"I feel very sad," Hue said by telephone. "These people consider the charity auction a joke, but they have seriously insulted the flood victims, all of those poor people, who were hoping to receive the charity."
Vietnam's central region, one of the poorest in the country, was devastated by four rounds of vicious floods in October and November, killing more than 180 people and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage.
Hue said some victims died trying to save their cows and buffalo because the livestock was the family's only means of income.
Vietnam has had similar problems involving fake bids at other charity auctions. The Communist country has a weak legal system for punishing people involved in such scams.