Trial of Van Thinh Phat chairwoman, accomplices to last nearly 2 months

The chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat and her husband will be put on a first instance trial by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court from March 5 to April 29 for causing losses of VND484 trillion ($19.73 billion) to private lender Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

Truong My Lan and her husband Chu Lap Co, along with 84 other defendants, are charged with "embezzlement", "giving bribes", "taking bribes", "violating banking regulations", "abusing positions and power while performing duties", "showing a lack of responsibility causing serious consequences", and "abusing trust for property appropriation".

The trial will be chaired by criminal court chief judge Pham Luong Toan. Up to 10 prosecutors from the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy have been assigned to hold the right to prosecute in court. Among the lawyers defending the 86 defendants, five have been designated for Truong My Lan.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court has installed security cameras and a firefighting system to protect six tons of documents to be used as evidence in the upcoming trial.

On December 13, 2023, the Supreme People’s Procuracy issued an indictment against the 86 defendants in the case, accusing Lan of giving bribes, violating banking regulations and embezzlement.

According to the indictment, Lan ran the Van Thinh Phat "empire" with more than 1,000 large and small businesses, both at home and abroad. In order to have capital to maintain the operation of this giant "ecosystem", she sought to acquire SCB, aiming to turn the bank into her financial "tool".

During 2012-2022, Lan did not hold a position at SCB but owned a controlling stake of 85 to 91.5%. The procuracy said Lan "manipulated the entire operations of SCB for various purposes".

She and her accomplices arranged for people they trusted to be given key leadership positions on SCB’s board of directors and executive board, and set up some units specializing in providing loans requested by the Van Thinh Phat chairwoman.

Lan also instructed her subordinates to hire 440 individuals and use 435 legal entities hidden as shell companies that did not engage in any business activities and were only used to register loans with SCB and make fake documents to withdraw money from the bank.

They colluded with price appraisal companies to falsely increase the value of collateral assets and prepared false loan documents to take money from SCB.