The other defendants include Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh (former Deputy General Director of Sen Tai Thu Group), Nguyen Thi Lan Huong (former General Director of Sen Tai Thu Group), as well as Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan and Nguyen Thi Thanh Tu (both residing in Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi).

All the aforementioned defendants are prosecuted for Obtaining Property by Fraud, while defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan is additionally prosecuted for Money Laundering.

According to the allegations, from October 2020 to June 2023, due to the need for money to pay debts and for personal spending, Thuy Linh, Lan Huong, and Pham Thi Hoa discussed and agreed to falsely inflate the charter capital of Sen Tai Thu Group to mobilize capital through signed fixed-term share transfer agreements from Pham Thi Hoa, who was then the Group's Chairwoman.

The allegations state that the defendants hired collaborators, staff, and sales personnel and provided false documents regarding the company's business strategy created by Linh and Huong. With the documents, the collaborators told investors that Sen Tai Thu Group was expanding rapidly, opening multiple branches, and generating substantial profits.

Customers were then encouraged to invest or deposit money in the company under the form of share transfer agreements, with promises of dividends and high returns.

Thuy Linh and Lan Huong allegedly offered attractive interest rate tables ranging from 9 percent to 13.5 percent, depending on contract duration, and committed to paying returns on time. Investors were also promised the right to withdraw capital before maturity.

However, after contributing capital, investors were reportedly not granted shareholder rights nor recorded in the company’s shareholder registry.

Between October 2020 and June 2023, 459 investors transferred a total of more than VND1.726 trillion to invest in Sen Tai Thu Group under share transfer contracts.

After receiving the money, Pham Thi Hoa, Thuy Linh, and Lan Huong used more than VND737.2 billion to pay a portion of the profits to investors and misappropriated more than VND988 billion.

To date, 266 victims have filed denunciations and reports regarding the transfer of money to Sen Tai Thu Group to sign share transfer contracts with a total amount of more than VND971 billion. These investors have been paid more than VND213 billion by Hoa and her accomplices; the remaining misappropriated amount is more than VND757 billion.

The allegations also claim that, with the aim of misappropriating money, defendants Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan and Nguyen Thi Thanh Tu provided false information, claiming they had relationships with police and promised to help the General Director of Sen Tai Thu Group avoid criminal prosecution or receive a lighter sentence, subsequently receiving VND26 billion.

T. Nhung