Ms. Truong My Lan compensated more than 30,092 billion VND, where did the money come from?

According to the first instance verdict, in addition to criminal liability, Ms. Truong My Lan is obliged to compensate the entire amount of more than 30,092 billion VND to the victims and related people. So where will Ms. Truong My Lan get the money?

Lawyer Giang Hong Thanh (Giang Thanh Law Office - Hanoi Bar Association), who defended Ms. Truong My Lan, said that recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Enforcement Department has made great efforts and determination in recovering assets related to the case to prioritize payment to bondholders according to the judgments.

Pursuant to Official Dispatch No. 1948/CTHADS-NV2 dated March 24, 2025 of the Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Enforcement Department, as of March 24, 2025, in terms of cash, there was more than VND 8,659 billion in the accounts of the Judgment Enforcement Department and in frozen accounts. There was more than VND 15,383 billion that individuals and organizations had to pay to Ms. Truong My Lan. The total amount according to Official Dispatch 1948 is more than VND 24,043 billion.

According to lawyer Giang Hong Thanh, the first instance verdict of the Van Thinh Phat case, phase 2, also seized a series of shares and real estate with a total value of more than 10,000 billion VND to ensure Ms. Truong My Lan's obligation to execute the judgment.

Another amount of money that can also be used to remedy the consequences is more than VND15,712 billion from the An Dong bond package paid to 6 credit institutions. "This is a huge source of money. If it is completely recovered according to the provisions of Article 106 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Article 47 of the Criminal Code, the victims will receive their assets back quickly and completely," said Mr. Giang Hong Thanh.

Lawyer Giang Hong Thanh estimates that the total of the three sources of money above will be more than 50 trillion VND for Ms. Truong My Lan to compensate the victims in the case.

At the appeal hearing of the case of Fraudulent appropriation of property, money laundering, and illegal transportation of currency across the border, Ms. Truong My Lan maintained her appeal, disagreeing with the life sentence imposed by the first instance court. The defendant pledged to pay all the bond money to bondholders who requested compensation and expressed her desire to be given conditions to remedy the consequences.

According to Ms. Truong My Lan, the first instance verdict convicting the defendant of using fraudulent methods and tricks to issue 25 bond codes at 4 companies of Van Thinh Phat Group, namely An Dong, Sunny World, Quang Thuan and Setra, with an outstanding debt of more than 30,000 billion VND to more than 35,000 victims, is incorrect.

According to Ms. Lan, 1,612 billion VND must be deducted, which is the amount of money that SHB Bank used to issue bonds. "The defendant does not know how SCB Bank and SHB Bank agreed, but this is the amount of money from issuing bonds that SHB must be responsible for," Ms. Lan stated. Defendant Lan said that she is only responsible for more than 28,000 billion VND.

Currently, there are 25,000 bondholders requesting a refund, while more than 10,000 bondholders have no request, so the court should clarify this issue. Ms. Lan pledged to resolve the issue for the bondholders and requested the Court and the People's Procuracy to force individuals and organizations using bond money to cooperate to resolve the issue for the people.

Previously, Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group) said that the first instance verdict of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court ruled that she must pay the first instance court fee of 30 billion VND. Now Ms. Lan said that she is over 60 years old (elderly), according to Resolution 326, she will be exempted from court fees, so she asked the court to waive this amount.

"The defendant is an elderly person, so I ask the court to exempt me from court fees. If the court does not exempt me, I will comply," Ms. Truong My Lan presented to the panel of judges.

In phase 1 of the case, Ms. Truong My Lan was not exempted from more than 674 billion VND in court fees because the appellate panel determined that Ms. Lan did not meet the conditions for exemption.

Truong My Lan gave up and said her last words, her husband was praised to the skies. Minh Lợi20:58:19 26/11/2024On November 26, the appeal hearing of the Van Thinh Phat Group case (phase 1) continued the debate with the response of Ms. Truong My Lan. After that, the defendants were given the final say before the panel of judges deliberated.