Van Thinh Phat case will be tried in 2 months

The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City tried Ms. Truong My Lan, Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group, on three charges of bribery, violating regulations on banking activities and embezzlement.

The remaining 85 defendants, including 45 former leaders and officials of SCB Bank; 15 former officials of the State Bank; 3 former officials of the Government Inspectorate; and one former official of the State Audit, were prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy for the crimes of embezzlement, bribery, abuse of power and position while performing official duties, lack of responsibility causing serious consequences, and violation of regulations on banking operations..Five of these people are former leaders of SCB and its branches, who are now on the run.

The trial was chaired by Judge Pham Luong Toan, Chief Justice of the Criminal Court of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. The Supreme People's Procuracy assigned 10 prosecutors from the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy to prosecute at the court.

The victim in the case is Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) - related to the wrongdoings of Ms. Lan and her accomplices. Ms. Lan was identified as the victim in the case of Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri abusing trust to appropriate assets worth 1,000 billion VND.

Nearly 200 lawyers participated in defending the defendant and protecting the legal rights and interests of the parties involved. Of these, Ms. Lan alone had 5 lawyers: Phan Trung Hoai, Phan Minh Hoang, Nguyen Huy Thiep, Giang Hong Thanh, Truong Thanh Duc.

For the past two months, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City has been planning to prepare for the trial, including personnel, organization, court security... Most of the defendants have been transferred from Hanoi to T17 Prison, Cu Chi District.

According to the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy, since 2011, Ms. Lan has acquired 3 private banks to merge into Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) and exploited the bank's operations to mobilize capital for personal business. Ms. Lan used SCB as a financial company to provide capital for Van Thinh Phat's ecosystem.

With 91.5% ownership of SCB through many individuals, Ms. Lan directed the bank's leaders and key officials at Van Thinh Phat to withdraw money from SBC by creating fake loan documents, sometimes directing the withdrawal of money first and completing the documents later.

In 10 consecutive years (from 2012-2022), SCB has disbursed more than 2,500 loans to Ms. Lan's group with a total amount of more than VND 1,066,000 billion, accounting for 93% of the bank's loans, the remaining 7% is for regular customers.

By 2022, Ms. Lan's group still had nearly 1,300 loans, with outstanding debt at SCB of more than VND 677,000 billion (VND 483,000 billion in principal, VND 193,000 billion in interest), in the group of irrecoverable loans.

To legalize the withdrawal and avoid detection of violations, Ms. Lan directed SCB officials to transfer the disbursed money to "ghost" companies, then withdraw cash to cut off the cash flow.

The indictment determined that from February 2018 to October 2022, Ms. Lan directed the creation of 916 fake loan applications for SCB worth VND545,000 billion and appropriated VND304,000 billion; causing a loss of nearly VND130,000 billion in interest. In addition, Ms. Lan's actions also caused a loss of more than VND64,600 billion to SCB.

The investigation agency determined that in order to conceal the weak state of SCB and help the bank escape special control, Ms. Lan directed her subordinates to bribe the inspection team. Ms. Lan was accused of directing her subordinates to bribe Ms. Do Thi Nhan, former head of the State Bank's Inspection and Supervision Department, with a sum of 5.2 million USD.

Ms. Nhan was prosecuted for accepting bribes; 16 others were prosecuted for abusing their positions and powers while performing official duties.