On February 23, the Civil Enforcement Bureau of Ho Chi Minh City announced that it has established a team to receive evidence in the case involving Van Thinh Phat Group and Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) and related companies, organizations, and units (the Receiving Team).
According to the Civil Enforcement Bureau of Ho Chi Minh City, the establishment of this Receiving Team is based on Decision 343 of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, transferring the evidence of the case from the Investigative Agency of the Ministry of Public Security to the Civil Enforcement Bureau of Ho Chi Minh City.
The Civil Enforcement Bureau of Ho Chi Minh City also revealed that the expected evidence to be received by the Civil Enforcement Bureau of Ho Chi Minh City includes 1,577 land use rights certificates, shareholder books, stock ownership certificates, electronic devices, electronic data storage devices, savings books, and more.
As we reported, from March 5th to April 29th, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court will conduct a first-instance trial of Van Thinh Phat Group, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB). Judge Pham Luong Toan (Chief Judge of the Criminal Court, Ho Chi Minh City) will preside over the trial. 10 prosecutors from the Supreme People’s Procuracy and Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy are assigned by the Supreme People’s Procuracy to exercise the prosecution right at the trial.
In the upcoming trial, 86 defendants will be charged with various offenses. Defendant Truong My Lan, in particular, will be tried for 3 charges: “Bribery”, “Violation of regulations on banking operations”, and “Misappropriation of assets”. For the charge of “Misappropriation of assets”, Truong My Lan faces a sentence ranging from 20 years’ imprisonment to life imprisonment or the death penalty. Lan has 5 defense lawyers: Mr. Phan Trung Hoai, Mr. Phan Minh Hoang, Mr. Nguyen Huy Thiep, Mr. Giang Hong Thanh, and Mr. Truong Thanh Duc.
From 2012 to October 2022, Truong My Lan held from 85% to 91.5% of SCB’s shares, directing, operating, and manipulating all activities of SCB. Truong My Lan handpicked trusted individuals for key positions at SCB, and then established several units under SCB specialized in lending and disbursement according to Lan’s requests. Lan formed and used “ghost” companies, colluding with individuals at the helm of many related businesses to commit criminal acts.
Truong My Lan (left) and her accomplices will appear in court on March 5th.
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SCB has disbursed loans to 1,366 customers, including 710 individuals and 656 organizations. Among them, Truong My Lan’s group had more than 2,500 loans with a total disbursed amount of over 1,066 trillion VND. Lan’s group accounted for 93% of the loan amount disbursed by SCB, while the remaining 7% belonged to regular customers.
By 2022, 875 customers in Truong My Lan’s group still owe more than 677 trillion VND in outstanding loans at SCB, with no possibility of recovery.
From February 2018 to October 2022, Truong My Lan directed the creation of forged loan application files at SCB for 545 trillion VND and misappropriated 304 trillion VND. SCB not only lost the misappropriated principal amount but also had to pay an additional interest of over 129.372 trillion VND.
Tan Chau
