On March 15, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court continued the trial of defendant Truong My Lan and 85 other defendants in the case involving Van Thinh Phat Group, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) and related entities.
In the morning session, the presiding judge and lawyers continued to question the defendants and other parties involved in the proceedings (representatives from the Prosecutor’s Office did not question additional individuals).
The trial lasted until 12:15 pm, when the presiding judge announced that there were no further questions, and on behalf of the Judiciary Board, declared the end of the questioning phase and moved on to the debate phase.
According to the schedule, the representative from the Prosecutor’s Office will present their indictment on the morning of Tuesday (March 19), and the court will adjourn this afternoon and on Monday (March 18). The Judiciary Board will not work on Saturdays and Sundays this week.
If individuals with relevant rights and obligations, or the defendants themselves, have additional issues to present, they may submit written documents to the Judiciary Board through the court clerk for consideration in accordance with regulations.
Defendant Truong My Lan at the morning trial on March 15. Photo: Duy Anh
Prior to that, during the questioning of individuals and organizations with rights and obligations, a representative from Hoang Quan Valuation Co., Ltd. stated that the company conducted the valuation according to the contract signed between the two parties. Assets that were not valued were due to insufficient documentation as required by law, and therefore were not valued.
“For assets that are legal and have clear legal status, the company conducted a full valuation. The purpose of the valuation is to evaluate the financial situation of SCB. The company conducts valuation based on objective, independent, and market-based prices. Regarding the valuation results, the company has no further comments, as they are clearly stated in the documents,” said the representative from Hoang Quan Valuation Co., Ltd. before the court.
Meanwhile, a representative from SCB stated that the bank has no opinion on the valuation results, and SCB’s perspective is to maximize the recovery of assets for the state.
A representative from the State Bank of Vietnam stated that issues related to the case have already been clearly stated in the documents. The representative requested that the lawyers use these documents in accordance with regulations. Regarding some classified documents, the State Bank of Vietnam has already issued declassification documents and will provide them to the Judiciary Board.
In this case, Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group) is charged with three offenses: “Embezzlement of assets,” “Bribery,” and “Violation of regulations on lending in the operations of credit institutions.”
According to the indictment, Truong My Lan runs Van Thinh Phat Group, which has over 1,000 domestic and foreign businesses. In order to maintain operations, Lan sought to take over SCB, turning it into her financial tool.
Through the acquisition of shares and using other individuals as nominal owners, Truong My Lan owns over 91.5% of SCB’s shares. Lan then selectively recruited and appointed trusted personnel to key positions at SCB, established units under SCB specializing in lending and disbursement according to her own requests, and engaged in bribery to influence individuals holding positions and authorities in violation of their public duties…
The indictment identifies that from January 1, 2012 to October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan and her accomplices fabricated a large number of loan applications and withdrew a substantial amount of money. Specifically, Lan directed the fabrication of 368 loan applications to withdraw money from SCB for various purposes, resulting in outstanding debts of VND 132,247 trillion as of October 17, 2022, which are unlikely to be recovered.
These actions caused damage to SCB amounting to over VND 64,621 trillion. Additionally, from February 9, 2018 to October 7, 2022, Lan also directed the fabrication of 916 loan applications for the purpose of embezzlement, misappropriating over VND 304,096 trillion from SCB.
