The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on February 10 sentenced Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, former deputy chief of the Risk Management Department of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of VietinBank, for “swindling to appropriate assets” to life imprisonment.

Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu is given life sentence.

Nhu was given life sentence two years ago, so the combined penalty for her is life imprisonment.

The court also sentenced Nhu’s accomplice Vo Anh Tuan, former deputy director of Vietinbank's Nha Be branch, to seven years behind the bar. Together with his previous sentence, Tuan serves 27 years on prison.

According to the verdict, while being acting head of Dien Bien Phu transaction office of Vietinbank’s HCM City branch from May to September 2011, Nhu met with intermediaries and representatives of Orient Securities Corporation, Hung Yen Investment JSC, SaigonBank Berjaya Securities Company, Global Insurance Corporation, and An Loc Company to persuade them to deposit money in Vietinbank’s branches in Nha Be and Ho Chi Minh. She promised them interest rates higher than the ceiling rate, along with commission for the intermediaries, which were in violation of law. Nhu paid the extra interest and commission out of her own pocket.

After the companies deposited their money in their accounts in Vietinbank, Nhu faked the signatures of account holders and made use of her power to withdraw money from the companies’ accounts to pay her personal debts. The total amount of money that Nhu misappropriated came to 1.085 trillion VND (43.8 million USD).

Vo Anh Tuan accompanied Nhu when she travelled to Hanoi to meet with representatives from Hung Yen Investment JSC. He knew of Nhu’s deceptive acts but did not tell. Tuan also got 10 billion VND (440,000 USD) in the transaction.

Therefore, Nhu was asked to compensate the four companies for all of their losses. Nhu and Tuan were also asked to compensate over 200 billion VND (8.8 million USD) for Hung Yen Investment JSC. - VNA