Appeal trial of Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2: Defendant Truong My Lan's sentence reduced

Defendant Truong My Lan

On April 21, after nearly a month of trial and deliberation, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced the defendants in the second appeal hearing of the case at Van Thinh Phat Group Joint Stock Company (Van Thinh Phat Group) and Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB Bank).

According to the Trial Panel, the case file and the results of the interrogation have grounds to determine that the defendant Truong My Lan holds the majority of shares of Van Thinh Phat Group and SCB Bank. Around August 2018, SCB Bank was under inspection and examination by management agencies; the application for credit from SCB Bank by companies under Van Thinh Phat Group encountered difficulties, accompanied by long-term bad debts.

Faced with the above situation, Truong My Lan chaired a meeting with the defendants who were key personnel of Van Thinh Phat Group, SCB Bank and Tan Viet Securities Joint Stock Company (Tan Viet Securities Company), proposing to select 4 companies under Van Thinh Phat Group (An Dong, Sunny World, Quang Thuan and Setra) to issue 25 "fake" bonds, without collateral, with a total volume of 308,691,388 bonds, then illegally offered them for sale, mobilizing capital from 35,824 investors, earning tens of thousands of billions of VND.

The above amount was not used for the purpose of issuing bonds, Lan and her accomplices used it for other purposes such as repaying bank loans, paying principal and interest on bonds, spending on projects, transferring money abroad and for Truong My Lan's personal purposes, leading to the inability to pay bond debts. As of October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan and her accomplices had appropriated more than VND 30,081 billion from 35,824 victims.

In addition, the indictment determined that in the 10 years from 2012 to 2022, Van Thinh Phat Group used 23 companies (12 companies in Vietnam and 11 foreign companies and organizations) to transfer money abroad and receive money from abroad to Vietnam. Of these, 21 companies conducted 78 illegal money transfer transactions abroad (totaling 1.5 billion USD, equivalent to 35,360 billion VND) and 152 transactions receiving money from abroad (totaling 3 billion USD, equivalent to 71,360 billion VND). The total amount of money Truong My Lan is accused of illegally transporting across the border is 4.5 billion USD (about 106,730 billion VND).

Truong My Lan and her accomplices were also accused of "Money Laundering" from the embezzled assets of SCB Bank with the amount of 445,747 billion VND. Accordingly, to conceal the source of the money and legalize the amount of money "stolen" from SCB Bank, defendant Truong My Lan directed her subordinates to carry out many tricks of "laundering" money by withdrawing money and transferring it to hundreds of personal and legal entity accounts for use according to Lan's instructions.

The jury determined that Truong My Lan was the main perpetrator in all three crimes. The remaining accomplices assisted the defendant in committing the crime. The first instance verdict sentencing the defendant and his accomplices was the right person, the right crime, and not unjust.

However, after the first instance trial, the High Court received a notice from the Enforcement Agency announcing that more than VND8,600 billion had been recovered from the first phase of the case. This is a huge amount of money, and there is also the possibility of recovering VND15,000 billion in the near future. These amounts do not include the shares, stocks and other amounts that organizations and individuals must repay to Lan, which is VND21,000 billion. According to the first instance verdict of the first phase of the case, the Court determined that the amount recovered from both phases will be prioritized for enforcement to remedy the consequences for bondholders. Therefore, the Trial Panel determined that the amount recovered and expected to be recovered to remedy the damage to the victims is very large, which is considered a new detail.

Defendant Lan has many other mitigating circumstances, repentance, and uses many other assets to compensate for the damage... Therefore, the Court agreed to reduce Lan's sentence from life to 20 years in prison for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", maintaining the sentence of 12 years in prison for the crime of "Money laundering" and 8 years in prison for the crime of "Illegal transportation of currency across the border". However, combined with the death sentence (which has come into legal effect) in the first phase of the case, Truong My Lan must serve a total sentence of death.

Regarding civil liability, the Trial Panel determined that all the money embezzled from the bond issuance was transferred by the defendants to Truong My Lan for personal use, so Lan must be responsible for compensating for damages. The Court continued to seize Lan and her family's assets related to the violation, ensuring the execution of the judgment.

Regarding the appeal of defendant Vo Tan Hoang Van (former General Director of SCB Bank), the Trial Council did not accept and upheld the sentence of 12 years in prison for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", 5 years in prison for the crime of "Illegal transportation of currency across the border"; combining the sentence with the first-phase sentence, defendant Van must serve a life sentence.

According to the Trial Panel, the defendant Van took advantage of his network of employees to assist Truong My Lan in distributing securities to customers, embezzling 28,000 billion VND. The sentence imposed by the court of first instance was appropriate, and at the appeal court, the defendant did not provide any new mitigating circumstances.

The trial panel rejected the appeal of defendant Bui Anh Dung (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB Bank) due to lack of new circumstances, maintaining the sentence of 10 years in prison. Combined with the sentence of the first phase, defendant Dung must serve a life sentence.

Defendant Chu Lap Co (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Times Square Investment Joint Stock Company, husband of Truong My Lan) did not appeal or face any protest, but the Trial Panel determined that the defendant had returned the entire amount of money accused of "Money Laundering" (30 billion VND) and continued to pay an additional 5 billion VND to remedy the consequences. The Court of Appeal held that the defendant committed a somewhat limited and dependent crime, so the sentence of 2 years in prison imposed by the first instance court was somewhat harsh, so the sentence was reduced to one year in prison; combined with the sentence of 7 years in prison in phase 1, the defendant was forced to serve 8 years in prison.

For the remaining 23 defendants, the Court noted that after the first instance trial, the defendants actively remedied some of the damage caused by the case; some defendants had limited roles, had families in difficult circumstances, had contributed to the revolution... so their sentences were partially reduced from 1 to 2 years in prison.

In particular, defendant Truong Hue Van (former General Director of Van Thinh Phat Group Joint Stock Company, former General Director of Windsor Real Estate Management Group Company, niece of defendant Truong My Lan) had her sentence reduced from 5 years in prison to 3 years in prison for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Vu Phong

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/xet-xu-phuc-tham-vu-an-van-thinh-phat-giai-doan-2-bi-cao-truong-my-lan-duoc-giam-an-102250421122635983.htm