Van Thinh Phat case: How did the 5.2 million USD bribe take place?

Ms. Lan asked the director to “support and help” and then a huge amount of 5.2 million USD filled three foam boxes was transferred to Ms. Nhan.

The two “powerful men” trusted by Chairman Van Thinh Phat with the task of bringing money to bribe the female director are Dinh Van Thanh (chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB Bank) and Vo Tan Hoang Van (general director of SCB).

The money was transferred from SCB Saigon to SCB Cau Giay (Hanoi) and then the general director of this bank brought it to the office of the director at the State Bank and his home to deliver it personally.

Why was the largest bribery case ever discovered?

Meetings “pave the way”

According to the investigation conclusion, in July 2017 Dinh Van Thanh and Vo Tan Hoang Van reported to Ms. Truong My Lan about the interdisciplinary inspection team led by Ms. Do Thi Nhan (Director of Department II of the Banking Supervision and Inspection Agency under the State Bank) will conduct an inspection at SCB.

All three people agree that this will greatly affect SCB’s operations because real estate projects have large outstanding debts, serious bad debts and related violations of preparing false documents to “strip” money. providing for the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem.

During the inspection process, the above two SCB leaders sought to connect with female director Do Thi Nhan. These two “powerful hands” “designed” a meeting for female president Van Thinh Phat and the head of the inspection team, once at the headquarters of the State Bank and once at Daewoo Hotel (Hanoi).

At the meeting, Ms. Lan asked Ms. Nhan to try to come to a conclusion soon and find a way to “obscure” SCB’s violations so that the bank operates stably and foreign partners invest.

Mrs. Nhan nodded in agreement. These meetings “paved the way” for a $5.2 million bribe.

According to Mr. Van’s testimony, during the inspection process, the biggest violation at SCB was credit lending to companies related to Ms. Truong My Lan. The loan documents had many violations. The loan amount is large, the risk of not being able to recover the debt is very high.

At that time, Ms. Nhan discussed with Mr. Van about violations in credit records at SCB Bank in projects and plans under the restructuring project and lending to customer groups at 4 Nguyen Thi Minh. Khai.

Ms. Nhan discussed with Mr. Van that SCB must be put under “special control” and raised the issue of meeting Ms. Truong My Lan to request clarification. Mr. Van reported to Ms. Lan and Ms. Lan agreed to meet.

After that, Mr. Van arranged for chairwoman Van Thinh Phat Truong My Lan and director Do Thi Nhan to meet at the Sherwood 127 Pasteur building at the end of October 2017. At this meeting, Ms. Nhan informed Ms. Lan about the inspection team’s discovery of SCB’s poor situation and serious violations related to credit records. The female director requested Chairman Van Thinh Phat to sell off assets to fix, settle, and recover debt from loans with major violations.

After learning about the progress of the inspection with unfavorable results, Ms. Lan asked the delegation leader to “support and help”. After the meeting, Mr. Van heard Ms. Lan say again that Ms. Nhan requested to sell off assets to pay off debts to SCB in restructuring plans and projects with errors and proactively settle and “clean up” the balance. owed to a group of 71 customers at 4 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, the inspection team will not consider violations of the loans, only administrative handling.

General Director of SCB denounced the bribery case of leader Van Thinh Phat

At that time, Ms. Lan directed Mr. Van and others responsible for settling the “blacklisted” loans by using other companies in the Van Thinh Phat group to create false documents. drain” of SCB to repay SCB’s own debt.

Mr. Van was also assigned the task of leading the SCB delegation to Hanoi to explain the inspection contents to Ms. Nhan and the inspection team.

At the meeting, Ms. Nhan informed Mr. Van that the violations at SCB were particularly serious, violating criminal law, so they needed to meet with Ms. Truong My Lan to discuss and discuss solutions to avoid being prosecuted. criminal as well as avoid the bank being put under “special control”.

Receiving the above message from Ms. Nhan through Mr. Van, Ms. Lan flew to Hanoi to meet Ms. Nhan to discuss how to remove SCB’s violations.

After Ms. Nhan and Ms. Lan finished discussing their agreement, Ms. Nhan informed Mr. Van about Ms. Nhan’s agreement.

The investigation into the Van Thinh Phat case had a turning point when it was Mr. Vo Tan Hoang Van who denounced to the investigation agency a bribe of 5.2 million USD to female director Do Thi Nhan under the direction of Ms. Truong. My Lan.

According to the investigation conclusion, Mr. Van proactively reported details of giving money to Ms. Nhan and other individuals during the inspection process, denounced Ms. Nhan’s behavior before prosecuting the case, and actively cooperated. Work closely with the investigation agency to clarify the act of giving and receiving bribes and other violations.

Based on the resolution of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People’s Court and legal regulations, the investigation agency does not consider criminal liability for Mr. Van for bribery.

As for Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB Dinh Van Thanh, he fled and went abroad on November 15, 2020 before being prosecuted, so the investigation agency issued a wanted notice. After being caught, the investigation will continue.

Mr. Van’s private driver was determined to transport Mr. Van and styrofoam boxes containing 5 million USD to bribe Ms. Nhan, but did not know the money was inside, did not know the content of the agreement between these people, so he was not considered responsible. criminal liability.