The trial of the case at Vạn Thịnh Phát Group Corporation (referred to as Vạn Thịnh Phát Group) and Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) continued on the morning of March 19, 2024, at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court. This is the 10th trial session.
The trial session entered the 10th day
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy began presenting the charges against the 86 defendants in the case. According to the indictment, the defendants, including former chairman of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group Trương Mỹ Lan, have committed crimes that have violated the proper operation of the organization and caused a loss of trust among the people.
Lan has agreed to use multiple assets and authorized her daughter to recover more than 1,500 trillion VND in outstanding debts owed by individuals and organizations to mitigate the consequences of the case.
The investigation into the case has also revealed Lan’s fraudulent misappropriation of assets.
Since the start of the trial on March 5, Lan has continuously denied the criminal charges in the indictment. Meanwhile, the leadership team and officials at SCB, who are knowledgeable about the law and competent in their field, admitted to assisting Lan in “draining” the bank. The total estimated damage is 498 trillion VND.
Defendant Trương Mỹ Lan
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy has stated that Lan has committed multiple crimes, organized crimes, using sophisticated methods, misappropriating and causing significant damage to the state. These are aggravating factors in the criminal responsibility of the defendants. In addition, the representative of the People’s Procuracy also argued that Lan has shown no remorse and instead blamed her subordinates and other defendants at SCB. Therefore, there should be severe punishment for her criminal actions.
Before the restructuring of SCB on January 1, 2012, Lan owned over 80% of the shares of SCB (through the names of Viet Vinh Phu Financial Joint Stock Company and other shareholders). By 2018, Lan’s stake in SCB had increased to over 91%.
Defendant Đỗ Thị Nhàn
With her power as a shareholder, Lan easily controlled all activities of SCB from the merger to the initiation of the case.
Lan met Đỗ Thị Nhàn and provided 5.2 million USD to cover up the special weaknesses and misconduct of SCB discovered through inspections, to prevent SCB from being put under special control and continuing to be restructured.
In over 10 years from January 1, 2012, to October 7, 2022, Lan “directed” the fabrication of loans, disbursements, and withdrawals of 2,527 loans to “drain” over 1 quadrillion VND from SCB – 100 times the charter capital of the bank (SCB was once the largest private bank with total assets and charter capital of 10.5 trillion VND, later increased to 15.2 trillion VND). Through this scheme, Lan misappropriated over 304 trillion VND.
To legitimize the withdrawals from SCB, when the bank disbursed funds into the accounts of “shell” companies in the borrowing plan, Trương Mỹ Lan instructed Hồ Bửu Phương to cooperate with Nguyễn Phương Anh, Đặng Phương Hoài Tâm, Phan Chí Luân (all from the Executive Office of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group) to establish a plan to “allocate shares” through fraudulent transfer contracts. At the same time, multiple individuals opened accounts at SCB to make cash withdrawals, deposits, and transfers, ultimately ending up in the hands of Trương Mỹ Lan.
In cases where SCB disbursed funds into the accounts of individuals (who were hired to be the borrowers or beneficiaries of the loans), these individuals would go to the bank to sign withdrawal documents. Trương Mỹ Lan instructed Nguyễn Phương Hồng (Deputy CEO of SCB, deceased) or Trần Thị Mỹ Dung (Deputy CEO of SCB) to prepare the documents. Afterwards, Bùi Văn Dũng (Lan’s driver) went to SCB’s Saigon branch to receive the money.
The defendants in court
From February 26, 2019, to September 12, 2022, under Lan’s instructions, Bùi Văn Dũng transported an amount of 108.878 trillion VND and over 14 million USD from SCB to Vạn Thịnh Phát Group (193-203 Trần Hưng Đạo) or to the B1 Basement of the Sherwood building (127 Pasteur) or handed them to other individuals as directed by Trương Mỹ Lan.
The trial is ongoing…
