This morning (April 21), after several days of trials and deliberations, the appellate panel of the Ho Chi Minh City High-Level People’s Court announced the verdict in the Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2.
Appellate panel of the Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2. Photo: Tan Chau. |
The court sentenced Ms. Truong My Lan, Chairman of Van Thinh Phat Group, to 20 years in prison for “Fraudulent Appropriation of Property,” 12 years for “Money Laundering,” and 8 years for “Illegal Cross-Border Currency Transportation.” The total sentence is 30 years in prison.
 Ms. Truong My Lan at the appellate trial of the Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2. Photo: Tan Chau |
The panel agreed with the first-instance verdict of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on October 17, 2024, regarding the charges and the defendants.
Ms. Truong My Lan and her accomplices committed their crimes in a sophisticated manner, and their actions had severe consequences for society. The defendants were found guilty of multiple charges. The first-instance court had thoroughly examined and debated the violations and charges of the defendants.
Ms. Truong My Lan, as Chairman of the Board, was the mastermind behind the crimes. After being presented with a plan to issue bonds to raise capital by Nguyen Phuong Hong (now deceased), Ms. Lan approved the proposal. This marked the beginning of a series of illegal actions.
In the “Fraudulent Appropriation of Property” charge, Ms. Lan controlled, managed, directed, and decided all activities of Van Thinh Phat Group and its affiliated entities.
Ms. Lan directly initiated the issuance of corporate bonds, deciding to use four companies within the group: An Dong, Sunny World, Quang Thuan, and Setra, to issue 25 fake bond codes (totaling 308,691,388 bonds). She manipulated the cash flow to legitimize the initial investors for the issued bonds and then sold them through securities companies to thousands of individuals. Ms. Lan collected the money and used it for various purposes other than the stated bond issuance objectives, defrauding 35,824 victims of nearly VND 31,000 billion.
During the appellate trial, Ms. Truong My Lan confessed and expressed her willingness to compensate for the damages with her assets. The prosecutor’s office considered that Ms. Lan had compensated VND 8,000 billion and was expected to recover an additional VND 15,000 billion from organizations and individuals. This amount represents a quarter of the compensation for the second phase of the case, which led the prosecutor’s office to recommend a reduction in the sentence for the “Fraudulent Appropriation of Property” charge from a life sentence (as ruled in the first-instance verdict) to a fixed-term sentence. The panel accepted this recommendation.
Regarding the “Money Laundering” charge, the panel found that, from January 1, 2018, to October 7, 2022, Ms. Truong My Lan instructed her subordinates to transfer money out of the SCB banking system or allowed individuals and entities to withdraw cash from their accounts to sever the money trail. This was done to conceal and legitimize the source of VND 445,748 billion obtained through illegal means for various purposes.
For the “Illegal Cross-Border Currency Transportation” charge, from 2012 to 2022, whenever there was a need to transfer money abroad to repay debts or receive loans, Ms. Lan instructed her subordinates to establish “fake” contracts for the purchase and sale of shares, capital contributions, or consulting services between companies in Vietnam and foreign companies or organizations, all of which were “shell” companies under the management and operation of individuals within the Van Thinh Phat Group. The borrowed funds were transferred from abroad to Vietnam, and the debt repayments were transferred from Vietnam abroad through the SCB banking system. Ms. Truong My Lan and her accomplices illegally transported VND 4.5 trillion across the border.
Ms. Truong My Lan at the appellate trial of the Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2. Photo: Tan Chau |
In the first phase of the case, Ms. Truong My Lan was sentenced by the Ho Chi Minh City High-Level People’s Court to 20 years in prison for “Bribery,” 20 years for “Violation of Lending Regulations in Credit Institution Operations,” and a death sentence for “Embezzlement.” The total sentence was the death penalty.
In the recently announced verdict, the panel also aggregated the sentences from the first phase. Therefore, despite the reduced sentence in phase 2, Ms. Truong My Lan will still have to serve the death penalty for the combined sentences of both phases.
Tan Chau
– 10:16 21/04/2025
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