The Vietnamese prosecutor’s office requested the death penalty in the case of Truong My Lana businesswoman accused of embezzlement US$12.5 billion. Is he most important fraud case in the history of the country.
The accused had been arrested in October 2022. Now, prosecutors requested before the popular jury responsible for the case that applies the death penalty for the diversion of funds that affected more than 40,000 people.
The prosecutor’s request for fraud
In the most important fraud case in the country’s history, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for the Truong My Lan casea Vietnamese businesswoman accused of embezzling funds equivalent to US$12.5 billion through loans to ghost companies. The trial of Truong, and several of his accomplices, It started on March 5 in Ho Chi Minhin the south of the country.
“According to the prosecutor’s office, Truong My Lan played the role of mastermind, but he did not admit his crimewas stubborn, He criticized his subordinates and expressed no regrets“, indicated the country’s media. Now, the popular jury in charge of the case must define the sentence of the accused.
The use of the death penalty is common in Vietnam in cases of narcotics, but it is rare in financial violations. Statistics on its application are a state secret but, according to Amnesty International, “Numerous executions” are carried out each year.
The details of the businesswoman’s fraud
Truong My Lan, and 85 other defendantswere prosecuted for the crimes of: embezzlement of funds, briberytake advantage of the position and power in the performance of official functions and violation of banking regulations. Among all the accused, there are 45 leaders and officials of the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB)15 former officials of the State Bank, 3 former officials of the Government Inspection, a former State audit official and 7 workers from an appraisal company.
The businesswoman is the president of the Van Thinh Phat real estate developer group. Through this company, Truong My Lan used its ecosystem of more than 1,000 national and foreign companiesincluding the SCB, dividing them into 4 main groups for the scam.
The accused ordered the accomplices in the case to prepare fake loan documents to get SCB loans. In total, the bank disbursed 2,257 loans scamming more than 40,000 people for almost $12.5 billion.
According to the indictment, the events occurred between 2012 and 2022, when Truong My Lan did not hold any position in the SCB but, by owning 91.5% of the shares, he controlled, manipulated and directed all the bank’s operations. By 2022, the defendant group still has 1,284 loan applicationsequivalent to an outstanding debt of more than u$20 million dollars.
The prosecution assures that it is a case of fraud largest in the history of Vietnam. The magnitude of the scandal led hundreds of people to demonstrate in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minhin one of the few tolerated protests in the country.
Source: Ambito
