The Court of Appeal requires SCB to cooperate and not arbitrarily handle Truong My Lan's assets.

On December 3, the High-Level People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group) and 47 defendants who appealed in the case that occurred at Van Thinh Phat Group, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) and related units and organizations.

Regarding the civil part, to ensure the defendant’s obligation to execute the judgment, the panel decided to continue to seize and freeze the assets related to Ms. Truong My Lan, including her shares in SCB. In case of a dispute related to the handling of these shares, the issue will be resolved in another case.

Regarding the 1,120 asset codes used as collateral for Ms. Lan’s 1,243 loans at SCB, the court of first instance had previously assigned SCB to manage and handle the debt. However, the appellate panel did not agree with this decision.

The 700 billion VND ancient villa that Truong My Lan requested not to be seized.

The Court of Appeal requested SCB to coordinate with competent authorities to manage the above assets. The handling of assets must be carried out under the supervision of the Supreme People's Procuracy, the Economic Police Department (C03, Ministry of Public Security ) and the enforcement agency to ensure optimal debt collection efficiency.

If SCB processes the assets and recovers the remaining balance, the bank must coordinate with C03 to determine which assets belong to Ms. Lan. These assets will be used to fulfill the defendant's other compensation obligations in the case.

The panel of judges also did not accept Ms. Lan's appeal to request the release of the seizure of assets such as the ancient villa on Vo Van Tan Street (District 1), building No. 19-25 Nguyen Hue, real estate at 21-21A Tran Cao Van (District 3) and a number of other assets.

Ms. Lan argued that these assets did not belong to her and were not related to the case. However, the panel determined that these assets were actually owned by Ms. Lan, so they continued to be seized to ensure the fulfillment of compensation obligations in the case.

Continue to seize assets of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai

The case file shows that Ms. Lan used Sunny Island Investment Joint Stock Company to sign a contract promising to buy and sell the Bac Phuoc Kien residential area project with Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Company for 14,800 billion VND. Afterwards, Sunny Island paid more than 2,882 billion VND to Quoc Cuong Gia Lai.

The court of first instance annulled this transaction, forcing Quoc Cuong Gia Lai to return VND2,882 billion to Ms. Lan. The company appealed but later withdrew the appeal, so the appellate court suspended the trial of this matter.

However, Quoc Cuong Gia Lai still has to fulfill its obligation to repay the above amount. To ensure this, the court decided to continue to seize some of the company's assets. After completing the obligation to pay Ms. Lan, the seized assets will be released.

There is no basis to determine 6,000 billion VND from SCB loans.

In the part of considering the appeal of those with related rights and obligations, the panel of judges said that there was cooperation between Ms. Truong My Lan and Tuan Chau Group, chaired by Mr. Dao Hong Tuyen (often called "lord of Tuan Chau island") through contracts to transfer shares and projects.

Specifically, Mr. Dao Anh Tuan (son of Mr. Tuyen) and two companies under Tuan Chau Group, including Au Lac Company and T&H Ha Long Company, received from Ms. Truong My Lan a total of 6,095 billion VND through two main payments. Of which:

T&H Ha Long Company received more than 1,411 billion VND from the agreement to transfer 70.59% of the company's shares to Ms. Truong My Lan. In addition, 1,768 billion VND is being discussed by the parties to offset against other payment obligations according to the framework agreement.

Au Lac Quang Ninh Company received VND4,684 billion from cooperation framework agreements and asset transfers, including 243 townhouses in the Morning Star and Hoang Long villa projects. These assets correspond to 9 land use right certificates that were mortgaged to secure loans at SCB.

In total, Au Lac Company and T&H Ha Long Company used 32 land use right certificates to secure outstanding loans at SCB.

Regarding the request of T&H Ha Long Company and Au Lac Company to separate the repayment obligations of each company, the Panel of Judges found that the two companies had received a total of VND6,095 billion from the defendant Truong My Lan according to the framework agreements. To ensure the full recovery of this amount to remedy the consequences of the case, the Panel of Judges decided not to accept the appeal and forced the two companies to jointly fulfill the repayment obligation.

Regarding the request of the two companies that after completing the payment obligation, 8/23 asset codes in the list of 1,120 asset codes assigned to SCB need to be released from seizure, the Panel of Judges believes that the seizure of the assets of the two companies is in accordance with the law, in order to ensure the recovery of the amount of money for repayment.

However, the request for release from seizure after the completion of financial obligations is within the scope of resolution during the execution phase. The Panel of Judges did not resolve this issue in the appeal and recommended that the competent authorities consider and resolve it during the execution process.

Regarding the request to cancel the cooperation agreement between the two parties, the panel of judges affirmed that according to the first instance judgment, Au Lac Company and T&H Ha Long Company were forced to pay back more than 6,095 billion VND to ensure the compensation obligation of Ms. Truong My Lan. After this amount is paid, the framework agreement between the parties will be canceled. The appellate panel affirmed that these cooperation agreements will be automatically canceled along with the obligation to refund the above amount.

Regarding project 6A (Trung Son area, Binh Chanh), Ms. Truong My Lan stated that she had lent this project to SCB for restructuring and requested the court to force the bank to return it. She also voluntarily used this property to remedy the consequences of the case.

However, the panel of judges held that this issue had not been considered by the first instance court, so the appellate court had no basis to resolve it. Because Ms. Lan's enforcement obligations in the case were very large, the handling of the 6A project would be carried out in accordance with the law on enforcement of judgments.

Project 6A is not within the jurisdiction of the appellate court.

The case file shows that the 6A project is one of five restructuring plans at SCB, including Windsor, 6A, Times Square, Red Lighthouse and Fabric Market. Currently, the borrowers secured by the 6A project have paid all principal and interest to SCB, so this project no longer has any guarantee obligations at the bank.

However, SCB still holds the legal documents of the project, which is valued on the system at more than 16,000 billion VND. The bank believes that the amount recovered from customers borrowing capital secured by the 6A project comes from SCB's disbursement, so it requests to manage and handle this asset.

Project area 6A is adjacent to Him Lam residential area.

The panel of judges determined that because the content related to project 6A had not been considered by the first instance court, the appellate court did not have the authority to resolve it.

Similarly, at the appeal hearing, Ms. Lan requested SCB to refund the VND5,000 billion used to increase charter capital. However, SCB said that this amount had "integrated into the general cash flow" of the bank since July 2021 and is currently completing legal procedures to issue certificates to shareholders.

The panel of judges determined that this issue had not been investigated and clarified by the first instance court, so the appellate court had no basis to consider it. In case of a dispute, the parties may file a lawsuit in another civil case.

Hoang Tho

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/toa-phuc-tham-yeu-cau-scb-phoi-hop-khong-tu-y-xu-ly-tai-san-cua-truong-my-lan-ar911208.html