In the questioning phase, the majority of the defendants admitted to the criminal acts as prosecuted by the Prosecutor’s Office. The only exception was defendant Truong My Lan – the Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Corporation, who denied the acts and claimed that she did not withdraw money from SCB but only deposited it into the bank for restructuring purposes.
While denying the criminal charges, Ms. Lan affirmed that she would remedy the consequences of the case, such as requesting the trial panel to recover the debts, selling assets such as Capital Place Lieu Giai project (Hanoi), Daewoo Hotel Hanoi, where the defendant claimed her family owned 93.6% of the shares, shares in the LD Vietcombank – Bonday Co., which owns Vietcombank Tower in District 1 (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnamese Phat Industrial Park (Long An), etc.
Ms. Truong My Lan (purple dress) at the first-instance trial (Photo: Ty Huynh)
In addition, defendant Truong My Lan also owns 5 transfer projects of Son Long Tho Company (Hai Son Company), including Tan Tap Resettlement Area, Cho Moi Residential Area, Caric Shipyard, Tan Lap Cemetery Project, Long Hau Resettlement Project.
Gia Tue Investment and Development Joint Stock Company in Lam Dong is also associated with Truong My Lan. This company is currently implementing the Gia Tue Resort and Hotel project in Tuyen Lam area (Da Lat, Lam Dong).
In the healthcare sector, defendant Truong My Lan owns Dong Duoc 5 Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company in Ho Chi Minh City and a vaccine production plant in Soc Son (Hanoi). The factory has been completed but has not yet been put into operation, and Ms. Lan claimed to have invested VND 315 billion in it.
Overall picture of the trial of the Van Thinh Phat case (Photo: Ty Huynh)
Truong My Lan also spent VND 920 billion to buy shares in a foreign insurance company. According to the jury, Ms. Lan’s daughter is now selling these shares for $40 million, equivalent to the purchase price.
In court, Ms. Lan admitted to having given money to Dao Hong Tuyen multiple times for a project in Tuan Chau island, but there were no documents. The person in charge of the project went to Australia for treatment of cerebral edema, so it could not be clarified.
According to the file, the investigating agency seized 8 real estate properties related to the cooperation agreement between Truong My Lan and 2 related companies in the Tuan Chau project.
Other assets owned by Ms. Lan include: Hoan Hao Real Estate Joint Stock Company (Land area 235B Nguyen Van Cu, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City); 13% of shares in Sao Thuy Company – Project 1 Bis 1 Kep (transferred from Doji)…
The case file also shows that from 2012 to 2022, defendant Truong My Lan, Chairwoman of Van Thinh and her accomplices, created more than 2,500 loans and withdrew more than VND 1 quadrillion from SCB. As of now, these loans still have an outstanding balance of VND 677.286 trillion, with no possibility of recovery.
Participants in the trial (Photo: Ty Huynh)
Truong My Lan is directly responsible for VND 498 trillion and is charged with embezzlement, violation of banking regulations, and bribery.
During the questioning session on March 14th, the SCB representative stated that they disagreed with the amount of responsibility Ms. Lan must bear. According to SCB, the damages in the case amount to VND 677.286 trillion. As of March 5th, the preliminary figure is VND 760.279 trillion (including the principal of VND 482.449 trillion and interest/fees of VND 277.830 trillion).
Also in court, defendant Truong My Lan denied the allegations of her selecting and assigning her trusted personnel to key positions at SCB, claiming that she only knew a few people on the SCB’s Board of Directors.
Ms. Lan firmly stated that she had no knowledge of banking operations and claimed that she did not create a large number of fake loan records, nor did she withdraw money from SCB. Moreover, the defendant also claimed that she had no knowledge of “disbursing funds” or instructing the withdrawal and “cutting off” of funds after SCB disbursed loans to fraudulent borrowers.
The Chairman of Van Thinh Phat Corporation believed that when SCB was facing difficulties and the risk of liquidity loss due to bad debts left by its predecessor banks, Ms. Lan only knew that she let SCB borrow assets for debt restructuring, and how to restructure was the responsibility of SCB’s leaders, which she did not know about.
Prior to the merger, the defendant had to continuously meet with the State Bank, and she only focused on bringing the remaining assets, while she did not know how to sell them.
While affirming that SCB’s officials and leaders were not intimate, Ms. Truong My Lan admitted to “rewarding” large sums of money to individuals related to the bank when they resigned. “The amount depended on their positions and was based on their contributions to SCB, with no other purposes,” Ms. Lan testified.
