On November 17, Ms. Lan was investigated by the Police Investigation Agency, Ministry of Public Security, and proposed to be prosecuted for three crimes: Bribery, Violation of regulations on banking operations, and Asset embezzlement.
Regarding the case, the remaining 85 people were proposed to be prosecuted for the following crimes: Asset embezzlement, Violating regulations on banking operations, Receiving bribes, Abusing positions and powers while performing public duties.
In addition to the above three crimes, Ms. Lan was also prosecuted for fraudulent appropriation of property through bond issuance and money laundering.
>>List of 86 defendants
Defendants Truong My Lan (left) and Truong Hue Van.
According to the investigation conclusion, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) is a type of joint stock company, operating under the Enterprise Law;
Ms. Lan does not hold any position at SCB but is a person with authority here because since the merger (2012) until now she has always held a controlling stake of 85% to 91.5%;
According to the Ministry of Public Security, by holding controlling shares in operations and arranging trusted people to hold key leadership positions at SCB Bank (Board of Directors, Executive Board), all activities of this bank are
Ms. Lan was accused of using SCB to raise capital, then instructing people at SCB and Van Thinh Phat to prepare legal documents as a loan to withdraw money.
The bank has not been able to pay this amount until now and has generated interest of more than 129,372 billion VND.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, from 2018 to 2020, the suspects involved at Van Thinh Phat Group Joint Stock Company, An Dong Investment Group Joint Stock Company and a number of companies and organizations also committed `fraudulent acts.`
Ms. Truong My Lan was accused of appropriating a large amount of money
Compared to the scale of Vietnam’s GDP by the end of the third quarter of this year (4.7 million billion VND), the amount of 304,096 billion VND that Ms. Truong My Lan was accused of appropriating is equivalent to 6%.
Considering the performance indicators of the banking industry, this number is equal to 2.4% of the total outstanding credit debt of the entire economy (12.75 million billion VND) as of the end of the third quarter, equal to 11% of the total outstanding debt for
VND 304,096 billion is also more than the capitalization of 9/10 largest enterprises on the stock exchange today, second only to the capitalization of Vietcombank (code VCB).
According to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires November 18, 2023, Vietnam has 5 USD billionaires: Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong (4.5 billion USD);
Thus, the amount of 12.53 billion USD that Ms. Truong My Lan is accused of appropriating from SCB is larger than the total assets of all 5 Vietnamese billionaires (currently at 11.8 billion USD) and 3 times greater than the assets of SCB.
The case related to Van Thinh Phat Group was investigated by C03 from October 7, 2022 with the first 4 people arrested being Ms. Truong My Lan;
On March 28, C03 prosecuted Ms. Do Thi Nhan (former director of Bank Inspection and Supervision II under the State Bank) and 4 people from the interdisciplinary inspection team under the Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency.
The Ministry of Public Security is hunting two former SCB Bank chairmen Nguyen Thi Thu Suong and Dinh Van Thanh and five subordinates Chiem Minh Dung, former deputy general director of SCB;
Pham Du – Minh Son – Hai Thu