Phase I ended, Ms. Truong My Lan was sentenced to death by the court, and 85 accomplices received sentences ranging from suspended to life imprisonment; In phase II of the case, authorities continued to prosecute Ms. Lan and 32 defendants for 3 groups of crimes of ‘fraudulent appropriation of property; Money laundering; Illegal transportation of currency across borders’. The investigation agency determined that the group of defendants had illegally transported 4.5 billion USD abroad; money laundering of more than 445 trillion VND…
More than 80 defendants received sentences ranging from suspended prison to death
The case originated on October 7, 2022, based on collected documents, the Police Investigation Agency (C03) Ministry of Public Security, decided to prosecute the case, temporarily detaining Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairman of the Board of Directors). Van Thinh Phat Group) on the crime of “fraudulent appropriation of property”, related to violations in issuing “blank” bonds of An Dong Company, causing particularly great consequences for investors.
Next, C03 decided to additionally prosecute Ms. Truong My Lan and her accomplices for the additional crime of “Money Laundering”, for using and concealing the origin of appropriated money. Expanding the investigation, C03 prosecuted more than 80 defendants for many different crimes.
The case was then divided into two phases, of which, phase I, C03 accused Ms. Lan’s group of committing the crimes of “Embezzlement of property; Giving bribes; Accepting bribes; Violating regulations on credit lending in activities of credit institutions; Violations of regulations on banking activities and other activities related to banking activities; Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences; public service; abuse of trust and appropriation of property”.
In phase 1 of the case, the Investigation Police determined that Ms. Lan had built an “empire” of more than 1,000 companies, divided into 4 groups. Among them, there is a group of “ghost” companies established to withdraw 1 million billion VND from banks, using fake loan contracts.
According to the accusations in phase I, the prosecution said that for 10 years (2012 – 2022), Ms. Truong My Lan manipulated and dominated SCB Bank’s operations to appropriate money, leading to the bank losing liquidity. , outstanding credit debt is especially large, more than 677,000 billion VND in principal and interest that cannot be paid.
When being inspected and examined by the State management agency, Ms. Lan’s group tried to “pay bribes” and bribe them to bribe and deal with them.
The prosecution agency determined that 18 members of the inspection team all received materials from Ms. Lan’s group, in which Ms. Do Thi Nhan (former Director of Banking Inspection and Supervision Department II, under the State Bank) received bribes. 5.2 million USD; Many other officers of the inspection team managed by Ms. Nhan had many beautiful clothes, branded handbags or money ranging from tens of millions to billions of dong.
Notably, during the phase I investigation of the case, C03 further clarified the act of “abuse of trust and appropriation of property” by tycoon Nguyen Cao Tri (Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Capella Holdings Group) in business cooperation with Truong My Lan. The prosecution agency determined that Mr. Tri had appropriated VND 1,000 billion from Ms. Lan.
On April 11, 2024, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Ms. Lan to a total death sentence for 3 crimes; Ms. Do Thi Nhan was sentenced to life imprisonment for “receiving bribes”; Nguyen Cao Tri received 8 years for “abuse of trust and appropriation of property”.
More than 80 of Ms. Truong My Lan’s accomplices received sentences ranging from suspended to life imprisonment.
Just after the verdict, he pleaded guilty to a new crime
In phase II of the case, the Police Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security concluded that Ms. Lan’s group committed the crimes of “fraudulent appropriation of property; Money laundering and Illegal transportation of currency across borders”.
Particularly, Ms. Truong My Lan and 3 subordinates: Nguyen Phuong Anh (Deputy General Director of Saigon Peninsula Group Joint Stock Company); Trinh Quang Cong (General Director of Acumen Management Group Joint Stock Company); Truong Khanh Hoang (former Acting General Director of SCB Bank) were proposed to be prosecuted for all three crimes mentioned above. Nearly 30 other defendants were accomplices.
According to the conclusion, for fraudulent property appropriation, Ms. Lan’s group issued 25 “blank” bond packages through 4 Company legal entities (An Dong; Quang Thuan; Sunny World; Setra) with a total value of 30,869 billion VND, up to now there is still outstanding debt of 30,081 billion VND from 35,824 investors.
The second act is Money Laundering, the investigation agency determined that Ms. Lan’s group had “laundered” more than 445,747 billion VND (of which, more than 415,666 billion VND was the source of money to embezzle SCB Bank’s assets and 30,081 billion VND from the source of money for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property).
The third act, Ms. Lan’s group carried out illegally transporting currency across the border, totaling more than 4.5 billion USD (equivalent to 106,730 billion VND). 21 Companies belonging to Van Thinh Phat Group carried out 78 money transfer transactions abroad against the law with a total of more than 1.5 billion USD and 21 companies received money from abroad to remit money into the country against the law Phap Luat, with 152 transactions, totaling more than 3 billion USD.
CO3 said that Ms. Lan’s group’s international money transfers were all through share and capital contribution contracts; advisory contract; “blank” loan contracts between companies in Vietnam and companies and organizations abroad. The main purpose is to move out to pay debt, and move in to borrow debt.