HCMC – The People’s Court of HCMC is planning to open a hearing of a criminal case against Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group Corporation, and her accomplices in March this year.
Pham Ngoc Duy, chief of staff at the People’s Court of HCMC, said that the court had received 2,500 files in 104 boxes weighing almost six tons.
The trial is expected to last over one month.
This is the initial phase of the case, with a focus on charges such as embezzlement and bribery. The second phase of the case will involve a bond issuing scheme to which 40,000 individuals fell victim, Duy said.
Judge Pham Luong Toan, chief of the Criminal Court at the People’s Court of HCMC, will preside over the hearing. There are 86 defendants and around 200 defense attorneys.
In the initial case involving Van Thinh Phat and SCB, the indictment asserted that in effect, Truong My Lan was in almost full control of the bank as she owned 85% to 91.5% of it even though she held no official position at SCB.
Between February 2018 and October 2022, Lan allegedly ordered 916 loan files be falsified at SCB, allowing her to misappropriate VND304 trillion (nearly US$12.4 billion) and leading to nearly VND130 trillion in interest losses.
Lan also directed subordinates to bribe an inspection team, including providing bribes worth US$5.2 million to Do Thi Nhan, former chief of the Inspectorate and Supervision Department II under the State Bank of Vietnam.
Due to the huge bribe, Nhan in her capacity as head of the inspection team covered up, manipulated, and dishonestly reported the results of the inspection, leading to the State Bank of Vietnam lacking information for addressing the misconduct of SCB, and thus obstructing the prevention of criminal offenses by Truong My Lan and accomplices at SCB.
Truong My Lan was detained in October 2022 on alleged charges of fraud.
