On March 15, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City began its ninth day of trial in the case of Van Thinh Phat Corporation and Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB).
During this session, the panel of judges clarified some issues related to the testimony of defendant Truong My Lan regarding assets used to mitigate the consequences of the case.
 Defendant Truong My Lan |
Among the properties owned, defendant Lan requested to retain the villa located at 112 Vo Van Tan (Vo Thi Sau Ward, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City).
According to the defendant, this villa was purchased by her family for 700 billion VND. The defendant’s family has been renovating and repairing it for the past 5 years, but it remains unfinished. Defendant Lan stated that this is a heritage villa that needs to be preserved so she requested permission for her daughter to continue the renovation work.
Defendants in the trial |
To mitigate the damages suffered by SCB in this case, defendant Lan proposed selling various assets.
The defendant proposed selling the Daewoo Hotel in Hanoi. According to the defendant, her family owns 93.6% of the shares in this hotel.
In addition, defendant Lan mentioned that she has authorized her daughter Chu Duyet Phan to sell the Capital Place Lieu Giai project (Hanoi) for 1 billion USD to recover assets in order to mitigate the consequences of the case. According to defendant Lan, this project is currently mortgaged to 4 foreign banks for a loan of 230 million USD.
Regarding this testimony, the panel of judges confirmed that in reality, the Capital Place Lieu Giai building is being offered for 360 million USD, not 1 billion USD as requested by the defendant.
Defendant Lan also previously stated that she used 920 billion VND to purchase shares in a foreign insurance company. According to the defendant, the market price of these shares has now reached 5,000 billion VND. The defendant wants to sell these shares to mitigate the consequences of the case.
Regarding these shares, the panel of judges confirmed that defendant’s daughter stated that the current selling price of these shares is only around 40 million USD, which is equivalent to 920 billion VND at the time of purchase.
The panel of judges also mentioned that the defendant’s daughter requested to sell the vaccine production plant owned by Van Thinh Phat Corporation to mitigate the consequences of the case. Defendant Lan agreed to this proposal.
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Phuong Trang Group requests lifting of 3 project suspensions Attending the trial as a person with related rights and obligations, a representative of Phuong Trang Group requested the panel of judges to lift the suspension of 3 projects owned by Thanh Hieu Company (a subsidiary of Phuong Trang Group) as the project investor. According to the indictment, due to a debt of 450 billion VND owed by defendant Truong My Lan, Phuong Trang Group transferred Thanh Hieu Company to the defendant for the price of 3,450 billion VND. Although this company has transferred all legal documents and seals to the defendant, the defendant only paid 1,250 billion VND to Phuong Trang Group. Phuong Trang Group requests the return of 1,250 billion VND from the defendant, and the defendant returns the project to them. However, in response to the above request, a representative of Phuong Trang Group stated that they have transferred Thanh Hieu Company to 3 other individuals, and Ms. Lan only introduced these three individuals to Phuong Trang Group. Thanh Hieu Company and its projects are currently unrelated to Van Thinh Phat Group, so they requested the panel of judges to lift the suspension to continue the project. |
Photo Credit: Hoang Trieu
