‘Truong My Lan saved Saigon Commercial Bank to save herself’: prosecutors

While the former have said she did not use SCB’s money and had no intention to steal from the bank, the Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam said Thursday that investigations had shown that her companies in fact used the bank’s money to pay for their debts and other expenses directed by Lan.

Lan, the chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, indirectly owned 90% of shares in the bank and had total control over its operations, they told the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City Thursday.

She was the mastermind behind the VND30 trillion (US$1.2 billion) bond issuances, and every other defendant have claimed to only follow her orders, they said.

Her driver had admitted to transport money from SCB to her home and other places to pay debts, and part of the money was sourced from fraudulent bond issuances, they added. "Saving SCB means saving herself and her family."

Prosecutors also said that Lan used the money gained from issuing bonds for different purposes that what the issuers promised investors, as evidences had shown.

She used the latter issuances to pay interest for investors who bought earlier bonds, they said. "This shows the inability of issuers in payment and pointed out that Lan had intention to defraud investors when ordering the issuances."

Prosecutors said that although they had considered factors that could reduce her sentence, including her intentions to compensate the bond victims, they still recommend the highest punishment of life sentence due to the severity of her crimes.

Lan is in her second trial this year, in which she faces charges of fraudulent asset appropriation, money laundering, and illegal cross-border money transfers.

She allegedly defrauded 35,800 bond investors by issuing bonds worth VND30 trillion but never redeemed them.

In the first trial in April Lan was given the death penalty for embezzling VND677 trillion from Saigon Commercial Bank. She has appealed the verdict.