On February 16th, according to the court of Ho Chi Minh City, from March 5th to April 29th, the city’s court will conduct the first-instance trial of defendants Truong My Lan (68 years old, Chairman of Vanship Group), Chu Lap Co (68 years old), and 84 other defendants in the case.
The defendants are brought to trial for one of the following charges: Embezzlement of assets, Bribery, Receiving bribes, Violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions, Abuse of power, Authority in performing official duties, Serious consequences caused by negligence, Misappropriation of trust to misappropriate assets.
The trial will be chaired by senior judge Pham Luong Toan. The Supreme People’s Procuracy has assigned 10 prosecutors from the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy to prosecute in court.
The defendant, Truong My Lan, at the time of arrest.
Defendant Truong My Lan is being prosecuted for three charges: Embezzlement of assets, Bribery, Violation of regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions, and has 5 defense lawyers including Phan Trung Hoai, Phan Minh Hoang, Nguyen Huy Thiep, Giang Hong Thanh and Truong Thanh Duc.
Prior to this, in an interview with VTC News, Mr. Pham Ngoc Duy, Head of the Office of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, said that the Vanship case was related to irregularities in the credit activities at SCB, with nearly 2,500 volumes of documents, housed in 104 boxes, weighing about 6 tons, with about 1 million pages.
Therefore, the court has prepared a separate room to store the documentation, providing conditions for lawyers to photograph and study the documents, and install fire protection and camera systems for protection.
According to Mr. Duy, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court has anticipated many volumes of case files, and there will be hundreds of lawyers participating in defending the 86 defendants and many affiliated individuals and organizations in the case.
According to the indictment issued by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Truong My Lan, Chairman of Vanship Group, is prosecuted for three charges: Embezzlement of assets, Bribery, Violation of regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions.
The Criminal Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security accused defendant Truong My Lan of not holding a position at SCB, but being a puppet master who manipulated the bank’s leaders to help her siphon off more than VND 304 trillion.
The indictment of the Supreme People’s Procuracy clearly stated that from 2012 to October 2022, Ms. Truong My Lan had acquired and held 85-91.5% of SCB’s shares. From there, the defendant became a shareholder with “power” to direct, manage and manipulate the entire operation of SCB to serve her various purposes.
The Chairman of Vanship Group and his accomplices were accused of a series of acts, including selecting and arranging loyal personnel in key positions at SCB, setting up units under SCB specializing in lending and disbursing at the request of Truong My Lan; establishing and using thousands of “ghost” companies, hiring many individuals; coordinating with the heads of many related businesses to commit crimes.
In addition, Truong My Lan and her accomplices colluded with many valuation companies to fraudulently increase the value of collateral assets; created a large number of fraudulent loan records to withdraw money from SCB; devised plans to withdraw money and “cut off” the flow of money after disbursement; sold bad debts, sold slow-paying credit to reduce credit balances and bad debts, to conceal irregularities; bribed, exerted influence on individuals in positions of power and authority in state agencies to act against their official duties.
From there, Truong My Lan and her accomplices, with their different positions and roles, committed many crimes infringing on ownership, infringing on the operation of the bank, and the proper operation of state agencies.
In which, the Supreme People’s Procuracy determined that many acts were committed as organized accomplices with cunning and sophisticated methods, causing particularly serious consequences, misappropriating and causing extremely large damages.
In the case of former SCB Chairpersons and five others who were wanted in the Vanship case and are currently on the run, the Ministry of Public Security issued warrants for their arrest.
The wanted persons include Nguyen Thi Thu Suong (former Chairwoman of SCB’s Board of Directors), Dinh Van Thanh (former Chairman of SCB’s Board of Directors), Chiem Minh Dung (former Deputy CEO of SCB), Tram Thich Ton (former member of SCB’s Board of Directors), Sun Henry Ka Ziang (member of SCB’s Board of Directors), Lam Lee George (former member of SCB’s Board of Directors), and Nguyen Lam Anh Vu (former Deputy Director of Ben Thanh Branch of SCB).
The seven defendants are being investigated for violations of regulations on banking activities, other activities related to banking operations, and embezzlement of assets in the Vanship case.
According to the conclusion, for some defendants who were former leaders of SCB and have gone into hiding, the investigating agency decided to issue wanted warrants and called for surrender to receive mitigated sentences. In case they do not appear, it is considered that they have waived their right to self-defense and will be prosecuted and tried.
