Former Eximbank Branch Deputy Director Faces Trial for $117 Million Fraud

Additional victims will be summoned if necessary

This morning (September 9), the People’s Court of Hanoi reopened the first-instance trial of the accused Vu Thi Thu Nhung (DOB 1977), former deputy director of the Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) – Ba Dinh Branch, for “fraudulent appropriation of property” and “forgery of documents of agencies and organizations.”

The trial was initially scheduled for June but was postponed due to the absence of some victims and related individuals.

During this proceeding, the court clerk announced that several victims and related individuals were still absent, with some authorizing legal representatives to act on their behalf.

Participating lawyers expressed their concern that the absence of some victims would impact the trial and proceedings. They requested the council to take measures to ensure their presence, preventing repeated delays.

Notably, one lawyer also requested the council to summon representatives from Eximbank, as their presence is deemed essential to clarifying the accused Nhung’s actions.

The representative of the Hanoi People’s Procuracy shared that this is the second time the court has convened, and despite summoning, some parties are absent. However, it was stated that this does not directly affect the trial.

After deliberation, the court decided to proceed with the trial. If necessary, the court will adjourn to summon the victims and related individuals for questioning.

Modus Operandi for Appropriating Money

According to the indictment announced by the Procuracy, from 2013, Nhung was appointed deputy director of Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch and was in charge of mobilizing capital from individual customers.

Starting in 2014, due to debt repayment needs and personal consumption, Nhung deceived and provided false information to her acquaintances about Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch, where she worked, offering preferential savings programs for individual customers with internal bank relationships. These programs were said to have high-interest rates and valuable customer care gifts.

Specifically, the programs introduced by Nhung included: Flexible Term Deposit Certificate for Priority Customers at Eximbank with an interest rate of 7.5%/year and monthly customer care gifts; Term Deposit Certificate for Cash Custody; Certificates of Money in Financial Transactions; Bank Bonds with terms dedicated to priority customers at Eximbank… with high-interest rates ranging from 12% to 32%/year.

According to Nhung, these deposit programs were managed separately on the internal account system of Eximbank’s leaders, so they were not widely issued. When customers transferred money into their accounts, Nhung would be responsible for transferring the funds into the internal account of Eximbank Ba Dinh Branch, returning the receipts, and refunding the principal and interest to the customers.

To receive money from customers, Nhung opened multiple accounts at Viettinbank, VIB, Eximbank, and BIDV banks in her name and provided the account details to the customers.

According to the Procuracy, after the customers transferred money into Nhung’s accounts, she used a printer to forge confirmation receipts following a template and stamped them with the confirmation seal of Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch before returning them to the victims.

Additionally, Nhung also appropriated a large amount of money from customers by providing false information about Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch organizing an auction of bad debt assets. To facilitate this, Nhung established the Vietnam Investment and Asset Management Consulting Company, where she served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and entrusted Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh (DOB 1980, residing in Thanh Xuan) as the General Director.

When customers approached her, Nhung directly introduced this company as the “backyard” of Eximbank’s internal leaders and claimed that it collaborated with Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch to organize auctions for the liquidation of bad debt assets. She promised that if customers deposited money into the company’s escrow account, they would receive a high profit share, with short escrow periods of 5, 10, or 20 days, depending on the type of asset and customer.

At the end of the escrow period, customers would receive their full principal amount back and a profit share ranging from 10% to 14% of the deposited amount.

The “auction items” consisted of land plots and land-use right certificates, which Nhung obtained from individuals with credit relationships with the bank. She stored these images on her phone for easy reference during introductions.

Due to their trust in Nhung’s information, customers deposited their savings and escrow money for the purchase of bad debt auction assets liquidation with Nhung. However, after receiving the money, Nhung did not fulfill her commitments but used most of the funds to repay the principal, interest, customer care gifts, or profit shares to those who had previously deposited money.

In reality, the Procuracy determined that Nhung used the money from later depositors to repay earlier ones, and the remaining amount was appropriated by Nhung for personal use.

Another modus operandi mentioned in the indictment was Nhung’s act of forging various documents of Eximbank – Ba Dinh Branch, such as Flexible Term Deposit Certificates for Priority Customers, Certificates of Money Deposits with Terms for Internal Leadership at Eximbank, Term Deposit Certificates, Contracts for Escrow Money in the Purchase and Sale of Liquidation of Bad Debt Assets at Eximbank, Letters of Guarantee and Commitment from Eximbank, etc. These forged documents were then provided to the victims to gain their trust and continue depositing savings and investing in the auction of bad debt liquidation, which Nhung also appropriated.

The Procuracy charged that from 2014 to 2022, Nhung had appropriated money from approximately 100 victims, totaling more than VND 2,705 billion.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency has identified 46 victims in this case with complete information, such as names and addresses. These victims had transferred money to Nhung, totaling more than VND 788 billion. Nhung has used a large portion of this money to repay the principal, interest, customer care gifts, or profit shares to the victims, amounting to over VND 477 billion.

At present, the amount Nhung still appropriates from the victims is more than VND 311 billion.