Truong My Lan asks for back the ancient villa, yacht, 19 cars

(VTC News) - Defendant Truong My Lan asked the jury to reduce her sentence and hopes to receive back her assets including an ancient villa, 2 yachts and many houses on Nguyen Hue street...

On the afternoon of November 4, the trial of defendant Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group) and 47 other defendants continued with the questioning session. In court, defendant Truong My Lan did not deny her crime but hoped that the panel of judges would review all of her criminal acts and contributions to society, thereby reducing her sentence. When the panel of judges asked whether she had used SCB Bank's assets, Ms. Lan gave a lengthy explanation of the process by which her family had built Van Thinh Phat Group. She affirmed that she had lent SCB her personal assets to restructure the bank, denying the accusation of embezzlement.

Defendant Truong My Lan at the trial. (Photo: Hoang Tho)

To clarify the origin of the assets, Ms. Lan stated that her family was a famous merchant at Ben Thanh Market before 1975. After that, she sold cosmetics throughout Vietnam and expanded to neighboring countries. In 1992, she founded Van Thinh Phat Group and began operating in the real estate and restaurant sectors, accumulating capital over many years. Ms. Lan also hoped that the panel of judges would reduce the sentences for all defendants in the case so that they would soon have a chance to start their lives over, claiming that the accomplices only committed the wrongdoings because they wanted to save SCB. After presenting issues related to the case, Ms. Lan asked for the return of the assets that were being seized and frozen during the investigation. Specifically, she asked the court to release two buildings on Tran Cao Van and Le Loi streets (District 1) because these were assets her mother left to Truong Hue Van and were not related to the case.

She also requested the release of the seizure of the ancient villa on Vo Van Tan Street (District 3), a property with cultural and heritage value, which she had presented many times at the first instance trial. She also requested the panel of judges to release the building at 19-25 Nguyen Hue (District 1) so that she could rent it out and get money to renovate the villa on Vo Van Tan Street because SCB had not paid the rent for many years. In addition, Ms. Lan asked for the return of the house at 78 Nguyen Hue (District 1), the property she bought for her daughter, along with a yacht, two ships and 19 cars that are currently being seized during the investigation. She also requested the release of other assets such as savings books and real estate used as headquarters of Van Thinh Phat because she believed that these assets were created before she participated in the restructuring of SCB. According to the content of the case, from 2012 to October 2022, Ms. Truong My Lan acquired and held 85 - 91.5% of SCB shares. Since then, the defendant has become a shareholder with "power" to direct, operate, and manipulate all activities of SCB, serving his various purposes. The Chairman of Van Thinh Phat Group and his accomplices are accused of carrying out a series of acts including: selecting and arranging his trusted personnel to key positions at SCB; establishing a number of units under SCB specializing in lending and disbursing at the request of Truong My Lan; establishing and using thousands of "ghost" companies, hiring many individuals; colluding with individuals who are leaders of many related enterprises to commit crimes. In addition, Truong My Lan and her accomplices colluded with many valuation companies to inflate the value of collateral; creating a very large number of fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB; making plans to withdraw money, "cut off" cash flow after disbursement; selling bad debts, selling deferred credit loans to reduce credit balance, reduce bad debts, to conceal violations; bribing, influencing people with positions and powers in state agencies to violate their duties. From there, Truong My Lan and her accomplices, with different positions and roles, committed many crimes infringing on property, infringing on the operations of the Bank, and the proper operations of state agencies. In which, the Supreme People's Procuracy determined that many acts were carried out in the form of organized complicity with sophisticated and cunning tricks, causing especially serious consequences, appropriating and causing damage to especially large sums of money.

Vtcnews.vn

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/truong-my-lan-xin-lai-biet-thu-co-du-thuyen-19-o-to-ar905252.html