Woman gets life sentence for $18 mln bank fraud

The Hanoi People’s Court on Friday handed down a life sentence to a 39-year-old woman for fraudulently appropriating more than VND430 billion ($18.28 million) from three banks and a number of individuals.

Nguyen Ha Thanh and 25 other defendants were sentenced for appropriating the money from the National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCB), Vietnam Public Joint Stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank), Viet A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietABank), and four individuals.

Nguyen Thu Huong and Dang Quynh Huong, head of divisions at VietABank’s Dong Do transaction office got 18 and 17 years behind bars, respectively.

Quan Trong Duc, director of the Hanoi branch and head of the Dong Do transaction office of VietABank, wil serve 17 years in prison; and Nguyen Thanh Tung, 18 years. The remaining defendants received sentences from 12 months’ probation to 14 years in jail.

The court ordered Nguyen Ha Thanh to pay VND273 billion ($11.6 million) to VietABank; VND49.4 billion ($2.1 million) to PVcomBank; and VND47.5 billion ($2.02 million) to NCB.

According to the jury, Thanh had business connections with Nguyen Thanh Tung, co-owner of Eurocell Vietnam Company. In 2017, the company halted operations, but Tung held on to the company's seal and documents which he used with Thanh to access bank loans.

Thanh also borrowed money from people at high interest rates, and asked others to make co-owner's deposits at the banks, while convincing them to hand over the saving books. She took advantage of loopholes in the banks’ appraisal process or colluded with bank staff to mortgage the saving books for loans.

The jury determined that Nguyen Ha Thanh was the mastermind behind the operation.