Van Thinh Phat employees decry proposed sentences as too harsh

"I only followed orders and did not know what crimes I committed, but prosecutors still recommend a sentence as severe as my bosses," Dang Phuong Hoai Tam, the property company’s chief of staff, defended herself Monday afternoon at the ongoing trial in HCMC.

"Please reconsider the sentence since I have to single handedly take care of my old parents and child," Tam said.

She is accused by prosecutors of collaborating with others to help Lan appropriate VND171.34 trillion (US$6.85 billion) from Saigon Commercial Bank and causing it a loss of VND57.35 trillion.

They recommended imprisonment of 19-20 years for her for embezzlement.

She told the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City that she never managed the shell companies or their loans from SCB, and she was not aware her boss appropriated money from the bank.

She only took the job of chief of staff because no one else wanted it, and her work did not change after she did so, she claimed.

Lan and other defendants’ testimonies showed that she never committed embezzlement, she said.

Her lawyer said Tam only followed the directions of her bosses and her job was similar to that of a an accountant who provided information to her boss.

Without Tam, Lan and Van Thinh Phat executives would still have been able to commit their crimes, he added.

Van Thinh Phat chairwoman Truong My Lan seen at the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung

Nguyen Phuong Anh, deputy CEO of Saigon Peninsula, has also been recommended a jail term of 19-20 years for managing shell companies and signing papers to apply for loans from SCB.

He allegedly helped Lan pocket VND297.42 trillion and cause a loss of VND128.73 trillion to SCB.

But his lawyer said he was just an employee who did not personally gain from Lan’s crimes, and needed the salary to pay for his wife’s surgery.

He was nominally deputy CEO but did not have any powers, lacked knowledge of the law and thought everything Lan did was legal because she had been brought in by the central bank to restructure SCB, he said, seeking leniency for Anh.

Prosecutors have recommended the death sentence for Lan for committing severe crimes over a long period and causing irrevocable consequences.

From 2012 to 2022 she and her accomplices allegedly obtained 2,500 loans worth more than VND1 quadrillion ($44 billion), accounting for 93% of the bank’s total credit portfolio during the period.

She is accused of causing losses of VND498 trillion to the bank.