Van Thinh Phat case: Truong My Lan receives deat.h sentence, sentence reduced for Thanh Bui's wife

On the morning of April 21, after nearly a month of trial and deliberation, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City accepted the appeal for a reduced sentence of Ms. Truong My Lan (69 years old, Chairman of Van Thinh Phat).

Specifically, her life sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison for Fraud and Property Appropriation; her sentence of 12 years in prison for Mone.y Laundering and 8 years in prison for Illegally Transporting Currency Across the Border was maintained; the total sentence was 30 years in prison (the highest level of fixed-term imprisonment).

However, combined with the highest sentence - the deat.h sentence (which has come into legal effect) in phase one of the case, Ms. Lan must serve a total sentence of deat.h.

Regarding court fees, Ms. Truong My Lan requested to be exempted from 30 billion VND of first-instance civil court fees because she is an elderly person. However, this content was not accepted by the court on the grounds that the defendant did not meet the conditions.

During the second phase of the trial, Ms. Lan asked for the two albino Hermès bags back as souvenirs. Regarding the origin of the assets, the Chairman of Van Thinh Phat stated that she bought one in Italy and the other was given to her by a foreign billionaire.

Regarding this content, the panel of judges believes that the two bags above are Ms. Lan's property from criminal proceeds, so they should continue to be seized.

Regarding Ms. Truong My Lan's request to recover 15,000 billion VND from a number of credit institutions, the panel of judges determined that due to trial limitations, the above content is beyond the scope of this trial.

At the appeal court, Ms. Lan requested to release the seizure of 43,000 billion VND at several companies. The panel of judges believed that the owner of Van Thinh Phat had a great obligation to compensate and that this woman agreed to use the above amount to remedy the consequences of the case, so the seizure continued.

At this appeal court, many relatives of Ms. Truong My Lan had their sentences reduced, and even had their sentences reduced without appeal.

Accordingly, Mr. Chu Nap Kee Eric (Chu Lap Co, Ms. Lan's husband) did not appeal, was not protested, but the court still reduced his sentence by 1 year.

In this case, Mr. Chu Lap Co was accuse.d of helping Ms. Truong My Lan "launder" 33 billion VND. For the above actions, Mr. Chu Lap Co was sentenced by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City to 2 years in prison for Mone.y Laundering.

The panel of judges determined that Mr. Co had returned the entire amount of mone.y he was accuse.d of for mone.y laundering and continued to pay an additional 5 billion VND to remedy the consequences. In addition, the appellate court held that Ms. Lan's husband's crime was somewhat limited and dependent, so the first instance court's sentence of 2 years in prison for Mr. Co was somewhat harsh and the sentence should be reduced.

Based on the above analysis, the People's Court sentenced Mr. Co to 1 year in prison for Mone.y Laundering. In phase 1 of the case, Mr. Co was sentenced to 7 years in prison for Violating regulations on lending in the operations of credit institutions. In total, Ms. Lan's husband must serve a total of 8 years in prison.

In addition to Mr. Co, defendants Truong Hue Van and Ngo Thanh Nha (Ms. Lan's sister-in-law) also had their sentences reduced.

Accordingly, defendant Van's sentence was reduced from 2 years to 3 years, and Ms. Nha's sentence was reduced from 2 years and 3 months compared to the first instance court (to 2 years and 9 months in prison).

The violations of Ms. Truong My Lan's niece showed that: Defendant Van knew that Windsor Company had no need to invest in bonds and did not have enough mone.y to buy primary bonds. However, in order to carry out Ms. Truong My Lan's policy of issuing bonds, Truong Hue Van signed contracts and fake documents for WMC Company to transfer 13,000 billion VND to An Dong Company to buy primary bonds and assisted Ms. Truong My Lan and her accomplices in issuing 2 bond codes of An Dong Company, appropriating 13,000 billion VND from 20,623 victims.

The court believes that these people committed the crime with limited roles, difficult family circumstances, and voluntarily remedied the consequences, so there is a basis to accept the appeal to reduce the sentence.

Truong Hue Van: Entangled in prison still asks for a reduction in sentence for her biological aunt, revealin.g that there are still many unknowns Đình Như21:21:02 07/10/2024On October 7, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court continued to hear the case related to Van Thinh Phat Group Joint Stock Company, with arguments between defense lawyers for the defendants. Defendant Truong Hue Van asked for a reduction in sentence for his aunt for shocking reasons!