On March 5th, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court held a trial for defendant Truong My Lan (68 years old, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group) along with 85 co-defendants in a case involving Van Thinh Phat Group, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), and related entities.
In this case, Truong My Lan is being tried on three charges: embezzlement, bribery, and violations of lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions.
Defendant Truong My Lan being escorted to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court this morning.
In addition to being a defendant, Truong My Lan also participates in the trial as a victim of the misappropriation of assets of defendant Nguyen Cao Tri, Chairman of the Capella Group’s Board of Directors.
During the investigation phase, law enforcement agencies seized nearly 600 billion VND and nearly 15,000 USD. Among them, Truong My Lan and Truong Hue Van were found to have more than 7 billion VND; and Tạ Hùng Quốc Viet – CEO of Greenhill Village Joint Stock Company; Tran Van Hung – employee of Sherwood building (district 3, Ho Chi Minh City) had 190,000 USD seized.
The families of defendants Truong My Lan, Ta Hung Quoc Viet, Tran Van Nghi, and Truong Hue Van voluntarily submitted nearly 119 billion VND and 306,000 USD to address the consequences of the case. During the prosecution phase, 55.4 billion VND was seized from the defendants.
Notably, before the trial, family members of 10 defendants voluntarily submitted nearly 6.2 billion VND to address the case.
Specifically, the family of defendant Bui Anh Dung – former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB, submitted 4.5 billion VND; the family of defendant Phan Tan Trung – former Deputy Chief Inspector of the State Bank branch in Ho Chi Minh City submitted 546 million VND; Nguyen Thanh Tung – former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dong Phuong Petrol Joint Stock Company submitted 500 million VND.
The family of defendant Tran Thi Kim Chi – former employee of Natural Land Joint Stock Company, Luu Chan Nguyen – former Director of Seven Beautiful Trading Floor of SCB each submitted 30 million VND. Pham Manh Cuong – former Head of SCB’s Review Department and Cao Viet Dung – former Chairman of Tường Việt Trading and Production Company each submitted 200 million VND; Bui Nhan – former Deputy General Director of SCB submitted 70 million VND; Bui Duc Khoa – former Deputy General Director of Natural Land Joint Stock Company and Tran Hoang Giang – former Deputy Director of SCB Credit Approval Division each submitted 50 million VND.
Truong My Lan is accused of using SCB as a financial tool to mobilize capital, and then fabricating withdrawal records to serve the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem. Although not holding a formal position at SCB, with a 91.5% stake, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group had full control over and directed all banking activities. Over 10 consecutive years (from 2012 to 2022), SCB disbursed more than 2,500 loans to the Lan Group totaling over 1.06 million trillion VND – accounting for 93% of the bank’s lending amount.
As of October 2022 – when the case was prosecuted, the Lan Group still had nearly 1,300 loans, with a remaining debt of over 677,000 trillion VND in the non-recoverable group. After deducting the collateral assets, Lan took over 304,000 trillion VND and nearly 130,000 trillion VND in accrued interest from SCB. In addition, her actions caused over 64,600 trillion VND in damage to SCB from before 2017.
To resolve and address the consequences of the case, the Ministry of Public Security has secured a large number of special assets related to Truong My Lan’s criminal acts and those of her accomplices.
In terms of cash, during the investigation phase, 590 billion VND and 15 million USD were seized – the amount seized from Truong My Lan, Truong Hue Van (her granddaughter), money related to the transfer of some real estate projects, money given by Lan to others to hold, and money voluntarily submitted by the families of the defendants to address the consequences.
During the prosecution phase, the investigating agency further seized 55 billion VND from the defendants. The investigating agency also sealed off 42 accounts at various banks totaling nearly 1,900 billion VND and 8.5 million USD held by Truong My Lan and her accomplices.
In terms of real estate, there are 1,266 original land use rights certificates, construction permits; 1,784 copies of land use rights certificates; a list of 269 rental properties; and 21 notarized agreements, 147 compensation agreements for land plots, and land use rights certificates of the Bac Phuoc Kien project (Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City).
The Ministry of Public Security has secured a large number of special assets related to Truong My Lan’s criminal acts and those of her accomplices.
The investigating agency has also secured 1,237 real estate properties directly related to defendant Truong My Lan; seized 61 real estate properties and blocked the transactions of 8 real estate properties of 7 other defendants; seized 8 real estate properties of Au Lac Quang Ninh Co., Ltd. in Quang Ninh province related to the cooperative agreement between Truong My Lan and Tuan Chau Group, Quang Ninh.
The Ministry of Public Security also blocked the transactions of Sai Gon Kim Cuong Joint Stock Company with 9 accounts at SCB with a total amount of 790 billion VND. Regarding shares in SCB and related companies, the investigating agency has secured 858 million shares of SCB owned by Truong My Lan and individuals nominated on her behalf.
The Ministry of Public Security has also secured 138 million shares of 5 companies, including Southern Airlines Transport Joint Stock Company, Satsco North Investment Joint Stock Company, Satsco – Phu Quoc Investment Joint Stock Company, Dong A Real Estate Joint Stock Company, and T&H Ha Long Production and Trading Company; and blocked 14,000 shares of DATC Real Estate Services Joint Stock Company.
In addition, 22 other assets were secured, including 1 yacht, 2 ships, and 19 cars owned by Truong My Lan and Truong Hue Van through companies registered in their names.
