After nearly a month of hearings, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court delivered its verdict today (October 17) against defendant Truong My Lan and her accomplices.

In its judgment, the court stated that during the trial, Truong My Lan denied her role in the bond issuance plan, claiming she only allowed Nguyen Phuong Hong (former Deputy CEO of SCB Bank) to use subsidiaries of Van Thinh Phat Group (VTP) to issue the bonds.

Regarding the charges of "Illegal Transfer of Currency Across Borders" and "Money Laundering," Lan argued that she was being prosecuted for two crimes based on the same amount of money, at the same time, and for the same act, which was detrimental to her defense. However, in terms of civil liability, she agreed to use her personal assets and the assets of VTP Group to prioritize compensating the victims.

Meanwhile, the victims, who were defrauded into purchasing fake bonds, claimed they were lured into buying these bonds by Tan Viet Securities Company and SCB Bank. As a result, they demanded that Lan repay the money she had embezzled, along with the interest as prescribed by law.

The court revealed that the case involves 35,824 victims residing in 58 provinces and cities across the country, with 5,965 compensation requests submitted. However, more than 1,000 of these requests pertain to bond codes outside the scope of this case and thus will not be considered.

Regarding the charge of "Fraudulent Appropriation of Assets," the court found that Lan had instructed her subordinates to use four VTP Group subsidiaries (including An Dong, Quang Thuan, Sunny World, and Setra) to issue 25 fake bond codes without any collateral.

In the case of "Money Laundering," the court stated that to conceal the origin of VND 445 trillion acquired through embezzlement from SCB Bank and bond issuance, Lan directed her subordinates to devise a plan to withdraw and transfer the money out of the bank.

As for the charge of "Illegal Transfer of Currency Across Borders," whenever there was a need to transfer money abroad to repay debts or receive loans from overseas, Lan instructed her subordinates to create fake contracts for the purchase of shares, capital contributions, consultancy services, and loans between companies in Vietnam and entities abroad. Through these fake contracts, loans were transferred from abroad to Vietnam, and debt repayments were sent from Vietnam to other countries via SCB’s system.

The court ruled that the actions of the defendants were especially serious, violating social order and affecting both domestic and foreign investment. Therefore, a strict sentence is required to deter future offenses and protect public interests.

According to the indictment, Truong My Lan and her accomplices issued 25 fake bond packages with a total value of over VND 30.869 trillion, without any collateral, and sold them to investors. As of now, there remains a debt of more than VND 30.081 trillion owed to over 35,000 investors, with no ability to repay.

To conceal the funds obtained from bond issuance and the VND 415 trillion embezzled from SCB Bank, Lan instructed her subordinates to coordinate and withdraw funds from the bank system for various purposes.

From 2012 to 2022, whenever money was transferred abroad to repay debts or receive loans from overseas, Lan directed her subordinates to create fake contracts for the purchase of shares and capital contributions between VTP Group's subsidiaries and "shell companies" both domestically and internationally.

Through these fake contracts, loans were transferred from abroad to Vietnam, and repayments were sent from Vietnam abroad through SCB's banking system.

The total amount of money that Lan and her accomplices illegally transferred across borders was more than USD 4.5 billion, equivalent to VND 106 trillion.

Thanh Phuong