On March 19th, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court continued the trial of the case at Vạn Thịnh Phát Group Joint Stock Company (referred to as Vạn Thịnh Phát Group) and Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB). This is the 10th trial day.
10th day of the trial
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy began the indictment phase against the 86 defendants in the case. The defendants, including former Chairman of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, Trương Mỹ Lan, were charged with their criminal acts that violated the proper operation of organizations and undermined public trust.
Defendant Lan agreed to use multiple assets to recover more than VND 1,500 trillion in unpaid debts to remedy the consequences of the case.
The investigation process also revealed the fraudulent appropriation of assets by defendant Trương Mỹ Lan.
Since the trial began on March 5th, defendant Trương Mỹ Lan has consistently denied the criminal acts charged in the indictment. Meanwhile, the leadership of SCB, who are legal experts and knowledgeable in their field, admitted to assisting Trương Mỹ Lan in “bleeding” the bank. The total damages were determined to be VND 498 trillion.
Defendant Trương Mỹ Lan
The People’s Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City stated that defendant Lan committed multiple organized criminal offenses, using various sophisticated tricks to appropriate and cause enormous financial damage to the state. These aggravating circumstances impose significant criminal liability on the defendant. Furthermore, the representative of the People’s Procuracy also believed that Lan showed no remorse and instead blamed her subordinates and other defendants at SCB. Therefore, the defendant should be severely punished for her criminal acts.
Prior to the restructuring of SCB (January 1, 2012), defendant Trương Mỹ Lan owned over 80% of the shares of SCB (through Viet Vinh Phu Financial JSC and other nominees). By 2018, Lan’s shareholding in SCB had increased to more than 91%.
Defendant Đỗ Thị Nhàn
With her shareholder power, defendant Lan easily controlled all activities of SCB from the time of its merger until the prosecution of the case.
Defendant Trương Mỹ Lan met with Đỗ Thị Nhàn and paid them $5.2 million to conceal SCB’s special weakness and misconduct discovered during the inspection, in order to avoid being put under special supervision and to continue with the restructuring…
Within over 10 years from January 1, 2012, to October 7, 2022, the defendant orchestrated the creation of fraudulent loans, disbursements, and the misappropriation of over VND 1 quadrillion from SCB – 100 times its charter capital (SCB was the largest private bank with a charter capital of VND 10.5 trillion, later increased to VND 15.2 trillion). Through these actions, Lan embezzled over VND 304 trillion.
To legitimize the cash withdrawals from SCB, when the bank disbursed funds into the accounts of “ghost” companies under the loan schemes, Trương Mỹ Lan instructed Hồ Bửu Phương to coordinate with Nguyễn Phương Anh, Đặng Phương Hoài Tâm, and Phan Chí Luân (belonging to the Management Office of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group) to devise a plan to “liquidate funds” by creating counterfeit stock transfer contracts. Simultaneously, they used multiple individuals to open accounts at SCB for cash withdrawals, deposits, and circular money transfers, which eventually ended up in the hands of Trương Mỹ Lan.
In cases where SCB disbursed funds into the accounts of individuals (who were contracted as borrowers or named recipients of the loan money), these individuals would go to the bank to sign cash withdrawal documents. Defendant Trương Mỹ Lan instructed either Nguyễn Phương Hồng (former Deputy CEO of SCB, now deceased) or Trần Thị Mỹ Dung (Deputy CEO of SCB) to finalize the withdrawal process. Afterwards, Lan directed Bùi Văn Dũng (her driver) to go to SCB’s Saigon Branch and collect the money.
The defendants in court
From February 26, 2019, to September 12, 2022, as directed by defendant Trương Mỹ Lan, Bùi Văn Dũng transported an amount exceeding VND 108.878 trillion and over $14 million from SCB to Vạn Thịnh Phát Group (193-203 Trần Hưng Đạo) or to the basement level of the Sherwood Building (127 Pasteur), or delivered it to certain individuals as instructed by Trương Mỹ Lan.
Lan used the aforementioned funds to repay debts for the purchase of real estate, purchase shares in various projects, and for personal purposes.
The indictment phase is ongoing…
