First instance trial for trillion-dong swindling case

HCM City (VNA) – The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened the first instance trial on February 8 for two former employees of Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) for swindling over 1.085 trillion VND (43.8 million USD) from five companies.
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The two defendants are Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu (former deputy chief of the Risk Management Section of the HCM City branch of VietinBank), and Vo Anh Tuan (former deputy director of Vietinbank's Nha Be branch).

The involved companies are the Orient Securities Corporation, Hung Yen Investment JSC, SaigonBank Berjaya Securities Company, Global Insurance Corporation, and An Loc Company.

On January 7, 2015, the appeal court on the case of Nhu and accomplices requested the People’s Supreme Procuracy to reinvestigate into whether Nhu’s behaviour constituted the crime of “embezzlement of property” or “swindling to appropriate assets”, as well as Tuan’s role in the case.

After two years of reinvestigation, the People’s Supreme Procuracy upheld its prosecution of Nhu for “swindling to appropriate assets”.

In addition, during the reinvestigation, the People’s Supreme Procurary prosecuted 10 more former managerial and staff members at Nam Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NaviBank) on the charge of “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences”.
However, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City proposed a separate trial for those 10 suspects.

The court today summoned Nguyen Van Se, former director of VietinBank’s HCM City branch, and Truong Minh Hoang and Nguyen Thi Minh Huong, two former deputy directors of VietinBank’s HCM City branch as persons with related interests and obligations. However, only Hoang was present at the trial.

According to the verdict, while being acting head of Dien Bien Phu transaction office of Vietinbank’s HCM City branch from May to September 2011, Nhu met with intermediaries and representatives of the five aforesaid companies to persuade them to deposit money in Vietinbank, promising interest rates higher than the ceiling rate in violation of regulations. She also promised to pay fees for intermediaries. In fact Nhu used her own money to pay for the extra payment.

After the companies deposited their money in Vietinbank, Nhu faked the signatures of account holders and made use of her power to use the money from the companies’ accounts to pay her personal debts. The total amount of money that Nhu misappropriated came to 1.085 trillion VND.

Vo Anh Tuan accompanied Nhu when she travelled to Hanoi to meet with representatives from Hung Yen Investment JSC. He knew of Nhu’s deceptive acts but did not tell. Tuan also got 10 billion VND in the transaction.

The first instance trial will run until February 12.-VNA