Ms. Truong My Lan was sentenced to life in prison in the second case.

On October 17, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Truong My Lan and 33 other defendants in the case that occurred at Van Thinh Phat Group (VTP), Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) and related units.

34 defendants were brought to trial for fraud, money laundering, and illegal transportation of currency across borders.

Accordingly, the Trial Panel sentenced defendant Truong My Lan to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property; 12 years in prison for money laundering and 8 years in prison for illegal transportation of currency across the border; the total sentence is life in prison.

Regarding the issue of the victims requesting the defendants to compensate for principal, interest and related fees, the Panel of Judges reserves the right for the victims to resolve in other civil relations.

Regarding aggravating circumstances, 29 defendants were tried for fraud and appropriation of property. The panel of judges applied the aggravating circumstance of committing the crime two or more times to these 29 defendants.

Regarding the aggravating circumstance of “organized crime”, the panel of judges applied it to the defendants who were key personnel of SCB, Tan Viet Securities Company and VTP Group because these defendants had collusion and close discussions in issuing and distributing the bond lots.

The remaining defendants were not subject to this aggravating circumstance.

According to the People's Court, there is sufficient basis to determine that defendant Truong My Lan proposed using companies under the VTP Group to issue bonds; discussed with accomplices who are key personnel of the VTP Group, SCB, and TVSI Company to select and use four companies under the VTP Group: An Dong, Sunny World, Quang Thuan, and Setra to issue 25 fake bond codes with a total quantity of 308,691,388 bonds to mobilize capital, appropriating more than VND 30,000 billion from more than 35,000 victims.

The panel of judges determined that the crime of fraud and appropriation of property was completed when people transferred money to buy the bonds. After collecting money from people, the defendants used deceitful methods and tricks; used people's money for many different purposes such as paying old debts, personal expenses...

In addition, defendant Lan also directed other defendants to transfer money out of the SCB system or for individuals and legal entities to withdraw cash from their accounts in order to cut off the cash flow to conceal and legalize the illegal origin of the VND 445,000 billion from crimes, thereby committing the crime of money laundering.

In the crime of illegally transporting currency across the border, although the defendants did not physically transport money across the border, the defendants took advantage of international payments and foreign exchange transactions of banks to transport money across the border with an exceptionally large amount (4.5 billion USD); this is a new method and trick. Therefore, the prosecution and trial of the defendants for the crime of illegally transporting currency across the border is well-founded.