The investigation results show that Ms. Truong My Lan owns a huge amount of assets. The Investigation Police Agency has temporarily detained and seized real estate assets related to Ms. Truong My Lan, including: 1,266 original land use right certificates, 1,784 photocopies of land use right certificates, a list of 269 houses and lands for rent and 21 notarized contracts, 147 compensation agreements for land plots belonging to the Phuoc Kien project, Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City.

The investigation agency also seized 1,237 real estate properties at companies related to defendant Truong My Lan; seized more than 857 million SCB shares of Ms. Truong My Lan and individuals registered on her behalf; seized more than 137 million shares of 5 companies of legal entities and individuals registered on her behalf, along with 1 yacht, 2 ships, 19 cars and other assets.

According to the investigation agency, Ms. Truong My Lan assigned Ms. Dang Phuong Hoai Tam (Head of the Board of Directors Office of Van Thinh Phat Group) to monitor individual real estates to know which assets have been put up for bank loans and which assets have not been put up for loans.

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Loans related to Van Thinh Phat group at SCB Bank all have in common that the Head Office transfers customer information down, the business unit prepares documents according to the information provided by the Head Office, disburses first, and prepares documents later to make them legal.

Ms. Tam also manages and monitors the list of companies/individuals whose names are on assets and loans; is in charge of employees to carry out legal procedures and establish companies to use when applying for loans from SCB Bank.

In 2022, Ms. Truong My Lan showed Ms. Tam a list of her assets mortgaged at SCB Bank and asked her to check the information for each asset to see if there were any mistakes or if any assets were not returned after the loan was paid off.

According to Ms. Tam's statement, from around 2013 to 2014, she was assigned to the management team to monitor assets, including the individual assets of Ms. Truong My Lan and Van Thinh Phat Group.

By early 2020, Ms. Tam was appointed Deputy Head of the Board of Directors Office, in charge of all office work. At this time, Ms. Tam assigned the task of monitoring outstanding debt (including the name of the borrowing company, loan amount, disbursement date, collateral, outstanding debt, loan term...) to two other people for support.

These two people will contact SCB Bank on behalf of Ms. Tam to get information on outstanding debts related to assets, including individual assets of Ms. Truong My Lan and Van Thinh Phat Group so that when Ms. Lan requests a report, Ms. Tam will have information to report immediately.

Ms. Tam admitted that she had managed information and related outstanding debts at SCB Bank for 98 properties of housing and land in Ho Chi Minh City and 28 properties of agricultural land in District 9 (Thu Duc), Ho Chi Minh City. Ms. Tam knew that these properties were mortgaged for loans at SCB Bank.

In addition, Ms. Tam also directly contacted Mr. Tran Hoang Giang, Deputy Director of Credit Approval Department of SCB Bank to update the outstanding balance of SCB loans and mortgaged assets.

Step into the "vortex"

Regarding the case, Mr. Tran Hoang Giang stated: In 2014, he worked as a sales staff, then was appointed as Deputy Head of Appraisal Department at SCB Bank, Saigon Branch.

After several years working at SCB Bank, he was informed by the leaders of the Head Office and Saigon Branch that SCB had to approve and disburse loans to a group of customers related to "Madam", a powerful person at SCB, with the right to manage and direct loans related to the Van Thinh Phat group at SCB Bank.

Loans related to Van Thinh Phat group at SCB Bank are all shown on SCB's "Core Banking" system with the information field "HSTT" (ie "Marketing Headquarters"); the common point is that the Headquarters transfers customer information down, the business unit prepares documents according to the information provided by the Headquarters, disburses first, and prepares documents later for legalization.

During the process of performing the task of preparing a valid approval file for the Van Thinh Phat customer group with the information field "HSTT", Mr. Giang received direct instructions from Ms. Tran Thi My Dung, Deputy General Director and Director of Credit Approval Division and Mr. Bui Nhan, Deputy Director of the Division, in charge of the Wholesale Department.

In November 2020, Mr. Giang was appointed as Head of Wholesale Customer Credit Approval Department, under the SCB Credit Approval and Debt Settlement Division. From August 31, 2022 until his indictment, Mr. Tran Hoang Giang was appointed as Deputy Director of the Credit Approval and Debt Settlement Division, replacing Mr. Bui Nhan.

Mr. Giang confirmed: From October 7, 2020 to June 2, 2022, in his role as Director of the SCB Re-evaluation Department, the defendant signed and approved 192 loan appraisal reports, 160 re-evaluation reports agreeing to lend 208 loans to 160 customers who are individuals and legal entities of Ms. Truong My Lan's Van Thinh Phat Group with an outstanding balance as of October 17, 2022 of more than VND 128,507 billion.

Of which, the principal balance is 115,030 billion VND and the interest balance is more than 13,477 billion VND, including interest/fee debt that has been sold/debt offset.

Mr. Giang also stated that he was aware that the submission and approval of "HSTT" loans related to Ms. Truong My Lan's Van Thinh Phat customer group was against the normal lending process and violated the provisions of the law on credit granting.