HCMC – Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group Corporation, has been sentenced to death in the Van Thinh Phat financial fraud case, said local news reports.
The People’s Court of HCMC handed down sentences on Lan and more than 80 other defendants this afternoon, April 11, after more than a month of trial, and ruled out all arguments by Lan and her lawyers.
The 68-year-old chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat was sentenced to 20 years in jail for violations of banking regulations, to death for embezzlement of assets, and 20 years behind bars for giving bribes. Her combined sentence is capital punishment.
Truong Hue Van, CEO of Van Thinh Phat Group, received a prison term of 17 years. Meanwhile, Dinh Van Thanh, former chairman of the privately-held Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB); and Do Thi Nhan, former chief of the Inspectorate and Supervision Department II under the State Bank of Vietnam both got life imprisonment terms.
The court affirmed that the investigative process, court proceedings, and testimonies of the defendants were in line with the evidence contained in the case files, providing solid ground to identify Lan as the actual holder of a majority stake in SCB.
“Lan’s conduct not only violated the property management rights of individuals and organizations but also placed SCB under special scrutiny,” the verdict concluded.
Lan took advantage of the Government’s plan for restructuring poor-performing banks to merge three commercial banks: Ficombank, TinNghiaBank and SCB. From 2012 to October 2022, she managed to hold majority ownership of SCB (85% to 91.5%), thus allowing her to manipulate SCB for personal gains.
With her actual majority ownership of SCB shares, Lan selected and assigned key positions within the bank. She directed her accomplices to create 368 bogus loan files to withdraw funds from SCB with the aim of misappropriating a large sum of money for personal purposes. By October 17, 2022, outstanding debt had amounted to VND132 trillion, with no possibility of recovery. Lan’s actions resulted in losses of VND64.6 trillion for SCB, breaching lending regulations within the operations of credit institutions.
Lan also directed the fabrication of 916 loan requests, with VND304 trillion taken from SCB, which resulted in losses of VND129 trillion in accrued interest. This action constituted the crime of embezzlement.
She also instructed her accomplices to give bribes to the Inspectorate and Supervision Department’s inspection teams to cover their wrongdoings.
