On the morning of March 19, when questioned at the trial of Tan Hoang Minh, most of the defendants admitted to the accusations.

As the first person to answer the jury's questions, defendant Do Hoang Viet (Deputy General Director of Tan Hoang Minh Company) said that he holds the position of Deputy General Director in charge of the Finance and Accounting Center of Tan Hoang Minh Company, with the task of planning the company's annual financial plan.

The defendant admitted that the indictment against him was correct and stated that in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Tan Hoang Minh encountered difficulties in raising capital, credit difficulties, and had many debts due but could not borrow more. Therefore, the company met to discuss and plan to issue bonds to raise capital.

According to Viet's testimony, the capital mobilization plan came from Chairman Do Anh Dung. The Chairman assigned defendant Viet to come up with a plan and report back.

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Defendants in court. Photo: CTV

According to Do Hoang Viet's testimony, the three companies Ngoi Sao Viet, Soleil and Cung Cung Mua Dong fabricated fake business activities between the companies to create a plan to issue individual bond packages with a total issuance value of VND 10,030 billion to raise money for the group.

The defendant himself directed his subordinates to select a bond issuing company and contact an auditing company to audit the finances with the aim of conducting a full audit.

In addition, the defendant also directed the signing of "fake" contracts to transfer bonds, run "fake" cash flows for Tan Hoang Minh Company to become a primary bondholder to sell bonds, mobilize and appropriate money from secondary buyers.

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The panel of judges at the Tan Hoang Minh trial. Photo: CTV

In court, Viet admitted that the bond packages Tan Hoang Minh sold to investors did not guarantee value. During the process of selling and collecting bonds, the defendant reported to the Chairman. At that time, the defendant thought that Mr. Do Anh Dung did not know that it was a fraudulent act.

In this case, the damage was determined to be more than 8,643 billion VND, with more than 6,630 victims. Defendant Viet admitted this figure and said that so far his family has recovered all the damage.

According to the accusation, before each bond issuance, Do Hoang Viet reported and received the agreement of Do Anh Dung to direct Mr. Phung The Tinh (former Director of Finance and Accounting of Tan Hoang Minh), Hoang Quyet Chien (former Deputy Director of Finance and Accounting Center, concurrently Director of Finance and Accounting Department of Tan Hoang Minh Hotel Service Trading Company Limited) to be responsible for reviewing the financial situation of the companies selected to issue bonds.

Defendant Viet also assigned the chief accountants of the companies and accounting staff at the Financial Accounting Center to work with the auditing company to legalize the financial statements with a fully acceptable opinion, meeting the conditions for issuance and organizing the "fake" cash flow to create the "virtual" value of the bonds, legalizing the payment of the primary bond transfer contract and the bond issuance plan.

Viet directed defendants Le Thi Mai (former Deputy Director of the Capital Department, Tan Hoang Minh Hotel Service and Trading Company Limited) and Vu Le Van Anh (former Deputy Director of the Capital Department, Tan Hoang Minh Hotel Service and Trading Company Limited) to be responsible for assigning department leaders and specialists of the Capital Mobilization Department and the Capital Department to create documents and plans for "fake" issuance among companies and individuals within Tan Hoang Minh Group, to work and agree on related procedures with units providing valuation services, issuance consulting, account management and bond collateral management.

Answering questions in court, defendants Mai, Van Anh, and Tinh all admitted to the accusations. The defendants admitted that they knew it was wrong but still did it because they did not think it would cause such serious consequences.

Defendant Chien said that some of the indictment was incorrect. According to the defendant, he did not know all about the financial difficulties of the enterprise, because at the time he took office as Deputy Director of the Finance and Accounting Center, Tan Hoang Minh had already deployed 4 bond packages.

The defendant himself is just a salaried employee and did not benefit from anything. When the incident occurred, Tan Hoang Minh had already remedied all the damages, but the defendant still paid more money to remedy the consequences of the case.

This afternoon the trial continues with the cross-examination.