Earning thousands of billions, how will Phan Quoc Viet's huge assets be handled?

Viet A Company has a charter capital of 1,000 billion VND, including 4 shareholders owning capital. Of which, Phan Quoc Viet owns 47.25% of the charter capital, Ms. Ho Thi Thanh Thuy (defendant Viet's wife) owns 24%.

The investigation agency clarified that through inflating prices many times over, Viet A Company caused losses and benefited more than VND 1,235 billion.

When the case was exposed, the authorities froze 52 savings books in the name of defendant Viet's mother (total value of hundreds of billions of VND) and 2 savings books in the name of the defendant's child (worth 20 billion VND), along with many other valuable real estates, including 16 properties at 9 Mac Dinh Chi, Ben Nghe Ward, Ho Chi Minh City.

At the first instance trial, when the Trial Panel (TAC) asked Phan Quoc Viet how many frozen assets he had, the defendant replied: "I don't remember all of them."

According to the first instance verdict, regarding the benefits Viet A received from inflating prices many times over, causing losses of more than VND 1,235 billion, the panel of judges forced the company to pay the entire amount after deducting bribes and related amounts.

Regarding the money in the savings account of the mother and son of defendant Phan Quoc Viet, the panel of judges believes that this is money related to the sale of test kits, so they require defendant Viet to return it to the State treasury.

Regarding the 16 properties at 9 Mac Dinh Chi (Ben Nghe Ward, Ho Chi Minh City), the Chairman of Viet A said that these were the assets of Mr. HNL (the defendant's close friend) who had previously mortgaged them to a bank due to problems in business cooperation.

To help his friend "repay his debt", defendant Phan Quoc Viet agreed to buy back 16 real estates and then mortgaged them to the bank to borrow money for his friend. In court, Mr. HNL admitted this.

Present at the court, the bank representative requested to handle the above assets, specifically to auction 16 real estates to collect the principal and interest up to December 2023, which is 853 billion VND. Meanwhile, Mr. HNL accepted the option for the parties to sit down together to resolve the matter. Regarding this, the first instance judgment stated that it is necessary to request to review the results and commitments of 3 parties to resolve.

Judgment on the huge fortune

After the first instance verdict, the mother and wife of defendant Phan Quoc Viet appealed to claim the property. Ms. Dam Thi Trinh (mother of defendant Phan Quoc Viet) requested the appellate court to cancel the seizure and freeze of 52 savings books in her name.

Ms. Ho Thi Thanh Thuy (Phan Quoc Viet's wife) appealed, requesting the appellate court to cancel the seizure and freezing of two savings books in the names of her two children and her husband, Phan Quoc Viet, with a total amount of 20 billion VND. According to Ms. Thuy, this 20 billion VND is the money that the couple has saved for more than 10 years to send their children to school.

At the appeal hearing, defendant Phan Quoc Viet's mother said that the money in the seized savings books was the money she lent her son to do business.

Regarding the origin of the money lent to Viet, Ms. Dam Thi Trinh explained that it was money from her family's business for decades, money sent by relatives, and 1,000 taels of gold as a dowry. Ms. Trinh hoped that the appellate court would consider and allow her and her husband to receive the above amount of money.

After consideration, the appellate court held that the source of the money in the 54 savings books was from Phan Quoc Viet's illegal profits, and there was no basis to return it to Ms. Trinh and Ms. Thuy. Therefore, the court rejected the request to unfreeze the 54 savings books in the names of the mother and children of defendant Phan Quoc Viet.

According to the People's Court, the debt owed by defendant Phan Quoc Viet and his mother to each other is a civil transaction and is not within the scope of this case.

Previously, Phan Quoc Viet said he was ready to use the seized assets to resolve the case.