Before the trial of Van Thinh Phat case, how much money did the defendants return?

On March 5, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court will open the first-instance trial of the Van Thinh Phat case. Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group), her husband Chu Lap Co and 84 other defendants will be tried for the crimes of "Embezzlement of property", "Giving bribes", "Receiving bribes", "Violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions", "Abusing positions and powers while performing official duties", "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences" and "Abuse of trust to appropriate property".

Before the trial, many defendants voluntarily or influenced their families to pay money and assets to remedy the consequences. Of which, the Supreme People's Procuracy determined that Mr. Chu Lap Co (Ms. Truong My Lan's husband, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Times Square Investment Joint Stock Company) had compensated 1 billion VND.

Ms. Truong My Lan's niece, defendant Truong Hue Van (General Director of Windsor Real Estate Management Group) has recovered: more than 1,063 billion VND and 3,000 USD.

Defendants compensate for consequences worth hundreds of billions of VND, millions of USD

In relation to the case, Mr. Duong Tan Truoc (General Director of Tuong Viet Trading and Production Company Limited) was prosecuted for the crime of embezzlement of property as an accomplice with Ms. Truong My Lan. Investigation documents show that there is sufficient basis to determine that Mr. Duong Tan Truoc assisted and accomplice with Ms. Truong My Lan in embezzling property, appropriating more than 4,752 billion VND, causing losses in interest debt of more than 605 billion VND.

After the case was prosecuted on October 17, 2022, Mr. Truoc and Tuong Viet Company paid back SCB more than VND 813 billion (including principal balance of VND 801.8 billion and interest balance of more than VND 11 billion) for 2 loans of Tuong Viet Company and Viet Duc Company. This was assessed by the Investigation Agency as remedying the consequences.

The investigation agency determined that Mr. Truoc also received more than 2,697 billion VND from Ms. Truong My Lan. Of this amount, Mr. Truoc gave back 249.5 billion VND to Ms. Lan (through Ms. Lan's niece Truong Hue Van). Up to now, with more than 2,204 billion VND left, Mr. Truoc voluntarily returned all of this money to Ms. Lan to remedy the consequences of the case.

By the time the Supreme People's Procuracy completed the indictment, the defendant had paid more than 52 billion VND in compensation.

Another tycoon mentioned is Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Van Lang Company and Capella Company). The first meeting between her and Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri was in 2017, through an acquaintance named Ho Quoc Minh. The multi-million dollar deals between Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri and Ms. Truong My Lan also started from here.

Holding 1,000 billion VND from Ms. Truong My Lan, after the Chairman of Van Thinh Phat was arrested, Mr. Tri abused his trust to appropriate the above amount. Before the trial, the Supreme People's Procuracy determined that Mr. Tri had paid compensation of more than 657 billion VND and more than 3.3 million USD.

According to the Supreme People's Procuracy, Ms. Do Thi Nhan (former Director of the Banking Inspection and Supervision Department II under the State Bank) has paid 4.8 million USD and 10 bank savings books with a total amount of more than 10 billion VND.

Other defendants also paid restitution as follows: Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (former Deputy Chief Inspector in charge of the Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency under the State Bank): 390,000 USD; Ms. Nguyen Thi Phung (former Deputy Director of the Banking Inspection and Supervision Department II): 20,000 USD and 210 million VND.

Defendant Vuong Do Anh Tuan (former Head of the Inspection Department of the Banking Inspection and Supervision Department II) paid: 20,000 USD. Nguyen Van Thuy (former Deputy Head of the General Supervision Department, National Financial Supervision Committee) paid: 21,000 USD and 60 million VND. Le Thanh Ha (former Deputy Chief Inspector of the State Audit, former Head of Banking Audit Department 1, State Audit Sector VII) paid: 14,000 USD and 100 million VND.

Tran Van Tuan (former inspector of the Department of Inspection, Settlement of Complaints and Denunciations of Internal Affairs and General Economics (under the Government Inspectorate) paid: 6,000 USD and 40 million VND; Nguyen Tuan Anh (former civil servant of the Department of Inspection and Supervision of Domestic Credit Institutions (under the Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency, State Bank) and Vu Khanh Linh (former Deputy Head of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank Inspection Department (under the Banking Inspection and Supervision Department II, State Bank) paid: 100 million VND.

Nguyen Duy Phuong (former inspector of the Department of Inspection, Complaints and Denunciations Settlement of Internal Affairs and General Economics) paid: 1,000 USD and 20 million VND. Nguyen Van Dung (former Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch) paid: 15,000 USD and 400 million VND.

Nguyen Thi Phi Loan (former Deputy Chief Inspector in charge of the State Bank's Inspection and Supervision Agency, Ho Chi Minh City branch) paid: 470 million VND; Vo Van Thuan (former Deputy Chief Inspector and Supervision Agency, State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch: 1.85 billion VND)...