Van Thinh phat chairwoman Truong My Lan controlled all SCB executives: former CEO

The first defendant to be questioned at the trial that began March 5 at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, he admitted to all his crimes and affirmed the statement he had given to the police during questioning.

Van said he was hired as deputy head of the bank’s strategic committee in July 2013, and within months were promoted to deputy CEO and CEO.

He only found out later that Lan had the final say in all activities at the bank, including his own recruitment.

"Lan controlled all leaders and operations of SCB."

He admitted to approving 638 loans between 2013 and 2020, causing a loss of VND161 trillion to SCB, with Lan appropriating VND192 trillion of it.

He had approved all the loans on Lan’s say-so, he said.

"At the time I had great faith in her acumen."

SCB was going through restructuring during those years and had to deal with a lot of old debts, and since he trusted Lan to help revive the bank, he approved many loans related to her companies, he claimed.

During the two-month trial Lan faces charges of bribery, violating bank regulations and embezzlement.

She owned a 91.5% stake in the bank in the names of other people and entities, and got huge loans from it, sometimes drawing the money even before they were approved.

Between 2012 and 2022 SCB gave Lan over 2,500 loans worth over VND1 quadrillion, equivalent to 93% of its entire loan portfolio.

In all, she is accused of causing losses of VND498 trillion to the lender.

As of 2022 Lan’s network had nearly 1,300 loans worth a total of VND677 trillion, all unrecoverable.

Eighty five others are being tried for embezzlement, bribery, abuse of power while performing official duties, lack of responsibility causing serious consequences, and violating bank regulations.