On the afternoon of March 19, at the first-instance trial of the case of misconduct at Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), and related units, representatives of the prosecution proposed the sentence for the 86 defendants in the case.
Representative of the prosecution at the trial. Photo: Duy Anh.
According to the prosecution, all the defendants are individuals with qualifications, awareness, full capacity, and the ability to distinguish between permissible and impermissible behavior. The behavior of the defendants has caused significant economic losses, created negative public opinion in society and internationally, and therefore, they must be strictly punished.
For the 5 fugitive defendants, the authorities have called for their surrender, but the defendants have waived their right to protect their interests. Therefore, the prosecution finds it necessary to impose severe penalties on these defendants.
The defendants at Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) are just salaried workers who assisted Ms. Trương Mỹ Lan without benefiting from the misconduct. Therefore, the trial jury should consider reducing part of the punishment for them.
The prosecution proposed the death penalty for defendant Trương Mỹ Lan.
Based on the above analysis and evaluation, the prosecution proposed the death penalty for defendant Trương Mỹ Lan for the offense of “Embezzlement of property”, 19-20 years in prison for the offense of “Violation of regulations on banking activities and related activities” and 20 years in prison for the offense of “Bribery”. The aggregated penalty for Ms. Lan is death.
According to the prosecution, in this case, Ms. Trương Mỹ Lan was obstinate and committed the crime with sophisticated methods. Over more than 10 years, Ms. Trương Mỹ Lan and the Vạn Thịnh Phát ecosystem have “drained” more than 1.06 quadrillion VND, and the remaining debt that cannot be recovered at SCB is 677 trillion VND.
The prosecution determined that Ms. Trương Mỹ Lan caused damage of 498 trillion VND to SCB.
In addition, the prosecution also proposed life imprisonment for the defendants: Đinh Văn Thành (former Chairman of the SCB Board of Directors, currently wanted, absent from the trial), Võ Tấn Hoàng Văn (former General Director of SCB), Bùi Anh Dũng (former Chairman of the SCB Board of Directors).
Currently, the prosecution is still charging the remaining defendants in the case.
