The focus of the investigation into the Truong My Lan case and her accomplices in recent days has been to clarify the details related to the acts of giving and receiving bribes. The accused belonging to the bank inspection group have sincerely confessed and declared the amounts of money they received.
The route of the 5.2 million USD has been clarified
In response to the investigation, the accused Do Thi Nhan (former Director of the Inspection and Supervision Department II of the State Bank) confessed that she received money from Vo Tan Hoang Van (former CEO) and Dinh Van Thanh (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB – now a fugitive) on four occasions, totaling 5.2 million USD.
Accused Do Thi Nhan. Photo: Nguyen Hue |
Prior to this, the accused Vo Tan Hoang Van stated in court about the occasions when he brought boxes of fruit containing money with a driver to Nhan’s house, but the exact amount of money inside was unknown. Later, when working with the investigating agency, the accused only then found out that it was 5 million USD.
In court, Nhan explained that she did not receive any money or gifts from SCB during the inspection process. When she completed the inspection report, reporting the full extent of SCB’s violations to her superiors, Van and Thanh appeared to hand over the money.
Nhan stated that when Van handed her the money, she did not accept it… But because Van said, “Don’t make it difficult for Van and make it difficult for yourself.” The accused was very scared, so she put the money in a corner of the house without using it; she called Van to return the money, but he refused.
“The accused intended to return the money to Van after settling the matter with her mother, but was subsequently arrested. The accused realized her wrongdoing and voluntarily confessed, returning the entire sum of 5.2 million USD”, Nhan said.
In reality, Nhan has returned 4.8 million USD and 10 savings books containing over 10 billion Vietnamese dong to mitigate the consequences.
The accused admit that the charges are correct and the people have been charged appropriately. Photo: Nguyen Hue |
Nhan clearly indicated that she made some changes in the conclusion of the SCB inspection report to submit to the government in 2018. “The bad debt of SCB falls into group 3-5, but Mr. Hung instructed to put it into group 1,” she said.
The indictment alleges that, for personal gain, SCB gave money and material benefits to Nhan. Mr. Hung directed Nhan and the team members to conceal, cover up, edit the inspection report and other reports that were not truthful or complete to senior leaders of the State Bank and the Government, in order to prevent the transfer of violations to the competent authorities for processing according to the law. This allowed SCB to continue implementing its restructuring plan.
How was the wrongdoing of SCB overlooked?
During the questioning, the accused Nguyen Van Hung admitted that the indictment was correct. The accused received money and gifts from SCB on festive occasions, with a total amount of 390,000 USD.
“The members of the inspection team have been working in the industry for many years and have never had any flaws before; they are very good officers. I hope the court will consider reducing the penalty for the accused,” Hung cried and pleaded to the court.
 Accused Truong My Lan is charged with paying million USD to bank inspection teams to overlook a series of SCB violations. Photo: Nguyen Hue |
It is alleged that Hung instructed Do Thi Nhan, Nguyen Thi Phung (Deputy Head of the inspection team), and other members of the team to compile incomplete and untruthful reports, covering up SCB’s violations to the top leaders of the State Bank and the Government. This led to the failure to timely prevent Truong My Lan and her accomplices from withdrawing and illegally using SCB’s money, causing particularly serious consequences of over 514 trillion VND.
Phung admitted that the indictment was correct. She admitted to receiving 20,000 USD and 210 million VND from SCB, and then returning the money to mitigate the consequences.
The scene of the trial of the Truong My Lan case and her accomplices last weekend. Photo: Nguyen Hue |
The other accused belonging to the bank inspection group also sincerely confessed and admitted that the charges in the indictment were correct. These accused individuals admitted to their wrongdoing in following the instructions of their superiors.
In this case, 7 members of the inspection team were not considered for criminal liability but were only handled by the Party and the authorities. These 7 individuals were found to have committed misconduct during the inspection process and received money from SCB. However, they only participated in a part of the assigned work when signing the minutes and attending the team meetings, where they only contributed their opinions on their respective work; some inspection content was cut and edited by the team members as directed by their superiors.
These individuals actively cooperated with the investigation agency, helping to quickly clarify the case and achieving many achievements in their work, receiving praise from the competent authorities.
Dam De
