The beautiful businesswoman with more than 50 "ghost" companies in the Van Thinh Phat case

With a luxurious appearance and good education, Van was once praised by many websites as "the fourth generation of the Truong family, a prestigious family in the country".

However, this beauty also caused a "fever" when she established more than 50 "ghost" companies to support her aunt in the process of committing the crime. Through investigation, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency determined that, due to her close relationship, the defendant Van was trusted by Truong My Lan and assigned to manage and operate many different companies with business activities belonging to Van Thinh Phat Group such as: Van Thinh Phat Group Investment Joint Stock Company, Windsor Real Estate Management Group Joint Stock Company, Tanifood Company, Saigon Galleria Joint Stock Company and Eurasia Concept Joint Stock Company.

The positions that Van participated in include: General Director, legal representative of Van Thinh Phat Group Investment Joint Stock Company, Windsor Real Estate Management Group Joint Stock Company; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eurasia Concept Joint Stock Company and operating manager of Lavifood Joint Stock Company, Tanifood Company, Saigon Galleria Joint Stock Company. Before being arrested, Van was the name of 35 enterprises, with a total capital scale of up to tens of thousands of billions of VND.

Notably, Nguyen Phi Long and Dang Quang Nguyen have worked at Van Thinh Phat Group since 2009, assigned to various positions and tasks in Diamond Capital Company and Alpha King Company, in which Nguyen worked under the management and direction of Van.

In 2021, Truong My Lan acquired Lavifood Joint Stock Company from Mr. Le Thanh to operate in the field of agricultural product processing. Then, Truong My Lan assigned Van to manage and operate through Nguyen Phi Long, General Director (said to own 31% of shares) and Dang Quang Nguyen, Deputy General Director of Lavifood Joint Stock Company. During the operation, Truong My Lan directed Van to use the legal entity of Lavifood Joint Stock Company to borrow capital from SCB Bank for business purposes and to repay loans at other banks.

According to the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency, since 2020, Truong My Lan has also directed Van to establish "ghost" companies, colluding with Tran Thi My Dung, Deputy General Director of SCB Bank, to create a fake business plan to buy and sell agricultural products with Lavifood Joint Stock Company. The defendants created fake loan documents, withdrew money from SCB Bank to use for the purposes of Truong My Lan and Van. Therefore, Van directed Long and Nguyen to establish and use 52 "ghost" companies, coordinated with Dung and SCB employees to create loan documents against regulations.

Regarding Nguyen Phi Long, this defendant also confessed that he had coordinated with SCB Bank to create 105 fake loan applications to obtain money for the activities of Van Thinh Phat Group, Truong My Lan and Van. To borrow capital from SCB, under Van's direction, Long coordinated with Dung to plan to create fake documents. After that, Long asked Nguyen to mobilize employees in the company to establish 26 "ghost" companies. At the same time, Le Van Nhan's group transferred 26 other companies to Long to create fake loan applications at SCB Bank. In order for Nhan's group to agree to use the names of the borrowing companies, Long signed the debt repayment agreement for these companies.

Long admitted that setting up "ghost" companies under Van's direction to borrow capital from SCB Bank as above was against the law. Both Long and Nguyen further stated that the "ghost" companies were set up without real business activities. The money "stolen" from SCB Bank by creating fake documents was all transferred to Van Thinh Phat employees under Van's direction.

The Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency assessed that Van directed his subordinates to establish 4 companies with real operations and 52 "ghost" companies, creating 155 fake loans for Lan and Van to withdraw money from SCB Bank. As of October 17, 2022, these 155 loans had an outstanding debt of more than VND 2,834,305,475,880 (including principal debt of VND 2,809,042,375,904 and interest debt of VND 25,263,099,976).

However, these loans have collateral, so it is determined that Van was an accomplice who helped Truong My Lan appropriate more than VND 1,088 billion (the principal balance from November 9, 2020 to October 7, 2022 is VND 2,809,042,375,904, the value of the collateral of the loans is VND 1,720,801,785,949), causing a loss of interest debt of more than VND 25.2 billion.