"Super swindler" of over 430 billion from 3 banks asks for sentence reduction to pay debt

On March 26, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal for a reduced sentence for "super fraudster" Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh (40 years old, residing in Le Dai Hanh ward, Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi) and 13 other defendants (out of 26 defendants) in the case of fraud and property appropriation.

At the beginning of the trial, defendant Le Thi Hien (former bank employee) unexpectedly withdrew her appeal. In the first instance trial, defendant Hien was sentenced to 30 months in prison, suspended, for violating regulations on banking activities and other activities related to banking.

At the witness stand, the "super swindler" Ha Thanh stated that the reason for appealing for a reduced sentence was so that he could soon return to work to pay off the debts to those he had borrowed from.

Defendant Ha Thanh stated that during his detention, he had thought very carefully about his criminal history. Having everyone stand before the court, he felt very remorseful.

"The defendant's starting point when borrowing money was not with the intention of defrauding and appropriating property. Therefore, the defendant hopes that the panel of judges will consider the circumstances to reduce the defendant's sentence," Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh stated, adding that her family's circumstances were difficult, she was raising a young child, she was sick, and her family had contributed to the revolution.

To remedy the consequences of the case, "super fraudster" Ha Thanh said he would leave 26% of shares (equivalent to about 75 billion VND) at MHD Hanoi Investment Joint Stock Company.

The female defendant stated that the amount of 75 billion VND was withdrawn from bank loans, but the defendant could not specifically identify which bank it was withdrawn from.

In addition, the investigation agency also recovered 10 billion VND from Ms. BTTTh., which was the money the defendant used to buy shares. With this amount of money, Ha Thanh hopes to compensate for Viet A Bank (VAB-VietABank).

In the trial this afternoon, some defendants maintained their appeals for reduced sentences.

The defendants submitted many additional documents proving that their families had contributed to the revolution, were the main breadwinners in the family, and were in difficult circumstances.

According to the first instance verdict, Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh committed nearly 30 fraud cases, appropriating a total of more than 433 billion VND.

Due to business losses, Ha Thanh owed about 80 billion VND. During the period 2016-2018, Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh used the trick of borrowing money at high interest rates, taking from later people to pay earlier people to gain trust and also become a VIP customer of banks.

The "super swindler" Ha Thanh colluded with 17 people who were former officials and employees of PVcomBank, NCB, and Viet A to create savings books jointly owned by himself and the "tycoons", promising to pay high interest.

The first instance verdict determined that the group of former bank officials skipped many verification steps such as not meeting directly with the owner of the collateral, preparing a credit application despite forged documents, etc., thereby helping Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh borrow money using other people's assets.

In total, Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh appropriated 47.5 billion VND from NCB Bank; 49.4 billion VND from PVcomBank; more than 273 billion VND from VAB and 63 billion VND from 4 other individuals.

The court of first instance sentenced Nguyen Thi Ha Thanh to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property; the remaining 25 people were sentenced to between 12 months of non-custodial reform and 18 years in prison.