Truong My Lan's husband's assets were unfrozen, bribe recipient asked for sentence reduction

In addition to Truong My Lan, the Court of Appeal also considered appeals for reduced sentences of 47 other defendants for violations related to Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank ( SCB ) and Van Thinh Phat Group.

Among them, there is an appeal from Ms. Do Thi Nhan, former Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Inspection and Supervision Department.

Previously, at the first instance court, Ms. Nhan was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court for accepting bribes. Believing that the above verdict was harsh, Ms. Nhan appealed for a lighter sentence.

It is known that before the appeal hearing, Ms. Nhan returned all the bribe money and fulfilled other obligations according to the judgment of the first instance judgment.

According to the accusation, in July 2017, Vo Tan Hoang Van (former General Director of SCB) and Dinh Van Thanh (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB) knew that Ms. Do Thi Nhan was the Head of the delegation that would inspect SCB, so they informed Ms. Truong My Lan.

During the inspection, Van and Thanh tried to connect with Director Nhan, arranged a meeting for the Chairman of Van Thinh Phat at the State Bank headquarters and a second time at the Daewoo Hotel, Hanoi.

After that, Ms. Lan assigned Van to lead the SCB delegation to Hanoi to meet Ms. Nhan to explain and discuss ways to resolve SCB's violations. After the meeting, Ms. Nhan reported to Van that she agreed to help.

Following Ms. Lan’s instructions, Van and his personal driver used cars to transport money to bribe Ms. Nhan many times, totaling 5.2 million USD, at the office in the State Bank headquarters and Ms. Nhan’s private home. Three times, Van brought 5 million USD to fill 3 Styrofoam boxes of fruit. After each time he gave money to Nhan, Van informed Ms. Lan.

During the first instance trial, defendant Nhan stated that he followed the instructions of his superiors and requested the panel of judges to review some contents related to his behavior.

In addition, Ms. Nhan stated that the reason for receiving 5.2 million USD from defendant Van was to protect her family because she saw that many people related to the case had died and she had tried many times to return the money but was unsuccessful.

Ms. Nhan’s above viewpoint was rejected by the first instance court. According to the court, the process of Ms. Nhan receiving money from Mr. Van took place from March to December 2018.

"If he did not want to, the defendant could not have met Vo Tan Hoang Van four times to receive money, and even gave him the password to the house door so that Van could keep the money for the defendant. On the other hand, some related subjects died when the case was initiated in October 2022. That is, four years after Ms. Nhan received the bribe," the first instance verdict stated.

Regarding the origin of the 5.2 million USD, the People's Court held that Ms. Truong My Lan directed her subordinates to withdraw it from SCB; considering that the above assets were tools and means to commit crimes, the court of first instance confiscated them and added them to the State budget.

In addition, the court of first instance determined that Ms. Nhan received a particularly large bribe, so it was necessary to apply an additional penalty, forcing her to pay a fine of 100 million VND.

Also related to the case, previously, during the investigation, Mr. Chu Lap Co - Ms. Lan's husband returned 33.3 billion VND and had no obligation to compensate the bondholders, so the panel of judges declared to cancel the freeze on this person's account.

Regarding the account under the name of Mr. Truong Me (Ms. Lan’s younger brother) with a balance of 10 billion VND, the panel of judges held that the investigation did not have enough grounds to determine that the above assets were related to the defendants’ criminal acts. On the other hand, Ms. Ngo Thanh Nha (Mr. Me’s wife) had no obligation to compensate and had paid 10 billion VND to remedy the consequences, so the court decided to cancel the transaction block for this account.

During the trial, Ms. Nha said that her husband was seriously ill and was being treated abroad, and asked the panel of judges to cancel the seizure order on the above account so that Mr. Me could have funds for his medical treatment. Regarding the origin of the 10 billion VND, defendant Nha stated that this was the property that she and her husband had accumulated over many years and was not related to the case.

Ms. Truong My Lan's younger brother "begged" the court to get back 10 billion for medical treatment. Đình Như18:38:35 28/09/2024On the afternoon of September 27, the trial of Ms. Truong My Lan - Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group and related units continued to question those with related rights and obligations.