Reopening the trial of Mr. Tran Qui Thanh and his son

Today, September 6, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City reopened the appeal hearing of the case of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property" following the appeal for a reduced sentence of Mr. Tran Qui Thanh (71 years old) and his daughter Tran Uyen Phuong (43 years old).

Previously, on August 20, the trial was opened but the defense attorney for Mr. Tran Qui Thanh filed a request for postponement. In order to ensure the rights and interests of the defendant, after consultation, the Trial Panel decided to postpone the trial.

According to the first instance verdict, from 2019-2020, Mr. Tran Qui Thanh, Ms. Tran Ngoc Bich and Ms. Tran Uyen Phuong, through a broker, lent money to Mr. Lam Son Hoang, Nguyen Huy Dong, Nguyen Van Chung and Ms. Dang Thi Kim Oanh at an interest rate of 3%/month.

Mr. Thanh and his son did not sign a loan contract with collateral, but required the borrowers to sign a contract to transfer the project, shares in the project, and real estate. The contract value was lower than the actual value of the property.

When the borrower fulfilled his obligation to repay the principal and interest as agreed, Mr. Thanh and his son made up excuses for not returning the property, claiming that the property owner violated the terms of the contract and thus lost the right to buy it back. Mr. Thanh and his son also created other reasons to force the property owner to pay more money...

The total value of assets that the defendants appropriated from the 4 victims was 1,048 billion VND.

At the end of April, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Tran Qui Thanh to 8 years in prison, Tran Uyen Phuong to 4 years in prison, and Tran Ngoc Bich to 3 years in prison (with suspended sentence).

After the first instance trial, defendants Tran Qui Thanh and Tran Uyen Phuong filed a petition for a reduction in their sentences. Three victims and several people involved in the case also appealed.