On February 26, the People’s Court of An Giang Province prosecuted 17 defendants (including directors, deputy directors, and several employees of seafood companies) in a criminal case involving a bank fraud scheme that resulted in the misappropriation of over 600 billion Vietnamese dong.
The defendants include: Ngo Van Thu (CEO of Viet An Joint Stock Company); Nguyen Thanh Hung (Director of Binh Minh Import Export Joint Stock Company); Truong Minh Giau (Director of Minh Giau Limited Liability Company); Nguyen Viet Tuyen (former Director of Viet Hung An Giang Company Limited); Luu Ba Phuc (Director of Bach Phuc Limited Liability Company) and other defendants who served as accountants for the companies.
The defendants falsified documents to defraud a bank of 600 billion VND.
According to the indictment, Agibasa An Giang Limited Liability Company was established in March 2004. On February 27, 2007, the company changed its name to Viet An Joint Stock Company (located in An Giang) with Luu Bach Thao as CEO and Ngo Van Thu as the legal representative. The company’s business activities include frozen catfish production and processing, seafood trading, exploitation, and aquaculture.
From 2005 to 2011, Thao also established a “family group of companies,” including the aforementioned companies. From 2010 to 2014, Viet An Joint Stock Company, Binh Minh Import Export Joint Stock Company, and Minh Giau Limited Liability Company signed multiple credit contracts with banks.
To secure disbursements, Thao and Thu instructed the creation of fraudulent documents (such as fake sales contracts, invoices, counterfeit documents, fictitious purchase and sales records of catfish, and seafood feed) to be used as evidence for loan disbursements.
The evidence showed that in 100 sets of loan disbursement applications, all remaining balances were supported by forged documents, such as counterfeit invoices and falsified purchase and sales records of catfish raw materials and seafood feed. However, these fraudulent documents were used to support loan disbursement applications.
As of December 21, 2020, the bank has been defrauded of over 600 billion VND by the defendants.
During the investigation process, the defendants admitted that Viet An Joint Stock Company was not operating effectively, lacked financial resources, and exceeded its credit limit, which led Thao to instruct the defendants, accounting staff, and employees to create multiple fraudulent documentation sets to obtain additional loans.
The judging panel concluded that Luu Bach Thao was the mastermind and leader of the case. All misappropriated assets of the defendants were transferred to Viet An Joint Stock Company as decided by Thao. Meanwhile, Thao’s personal assets, such as houses and land in Ho Chi Minh City, have not been seized to guarantee the enforcement of the judgement.
Additionally, Thao and Nguyen Duong Phuong Trang (former accountant of Minh Giau Limited Liability Company) have been indicted but not prosecuted. The necessary procedures for conducting trials in absentia for Thao and Trang need to be completed. In regards to the actions of bank officials who granted loans to the companies (which were misappropriated), further investigations are needed to determine if any criminal offenses were committed, and necessary legal actions should be taken.
Therefore, the judging panel decided to forward the case to the People’s Procuracy of An Giang Province for additional investigations and clarification of the above-mentioned matters.
