The former General Director of SCB escaped bribery charges despite paying a bribe of 5.2 million USD

The case happened at the Group Van Thinh Phat, SCB and related units, the Police Department investigating economic crimes, corruption and smuggling (C03) The Ministry of Public Security proposed to prosecute 86 defendants. Of these, 41 individuals are SCB leaders and officers; 15 former State Bank officials; 3 former Government Inspectorate officers; 1 former State Audit officer.

Use trusted people, pay well

In this case, C03 determined that Ms. Truong My Lan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group, was the mastermind.

According to the investigation conclusion, Van Thinh Phat Group has many subsidiaries and affiliated companies. With the policy of taking advantage of banking activities to mobilize capital to meet the group’s business needs, Ms. Lan acquired 3 private banks and merged them into SCB in 2012.

After the merger, Ms. Lan asked 73 shareholders to own 85.6% of the shares; continue to buy and have their names registered, increasing the share ownership ratio in SCB to 91.5%. Therefore, although Ms. Lan does not hold any position at SCB, she dominates the entire leadership and operations at this bank.

Specifically, Ms. Lan brought in her own people or used individuals she trusted and trusted with qualifications in the financial field and were obedient to hold key positions. For these people, Ms. Lan pays a very high salary, from 200 – 500 million VND/month.

After acquiring SCB, through the key personnel she installed, Ms. Lan turned SCB into a financial tool to mobilize deposits from people and organizations to serve herself and the “ecosystem”. Van Thinh Phat.

Among her close friends, Mr. Bui Anh Dung, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SCB, is someone who is trusted by Ms. Lan because he is “gentle, not disruptive, and popular with people”.

While working at SCB, in addition to salary and bonuses on holidays, Mr. Bui Anh Dung was also given 500,000 SCB shares (equivalent to 5 billion VND) by Truong My Lan. In this case, Mr. Dung was proposed to be prosecuted for two crimes. With the act of “violating regulations on banking activities and other activities related to banking activities”, C03 determined that Mr. Dung contributed to SCB’s loss of more than 187,600 billion VND. With the crime of “embezzlement of property”, C03 determined that this defendant was involved in appropriating more than 104 billion VND and causing losses of more than 26,300 billion VND in interest debt.

Exempted from prosecution despite paying a bribe of 5.2 million USD

According to the conclusion, during his tenure as General Director of SCB, Mr. Vo Tan Hoang Van signed many documents agreeing to lend 638 loans to 402 customers who are individuals and legal entities belonging to the Van Thinh Phat “ecosystem”. loan at SCB; Outstanding debt as of October 17, 2022 is more than 271,308 billion VND in principal debt, more than 133,801 billion VND in interest/fee debt. Total debt is more than 405,110 billion VND.

C03 accused Mr. Van of taking advantage of his position and authority to actively assist and accomplice Ms. Truong My Lan to commit property embezzlement and violate regulations on banking activities and other activities. other related to banking activities. Mr. Van’s actions caused damage of more than 60,502 billion VND and contributed to the appropriation of more than 192,434 billion VND of SCB.

Faced with SCB’s very serious violations, the State Bank has set up many inspection teams to inspect this bank.

Mr. Van admitted that during the inspection process, the biggest violation at SCB was credit lending to companies related to Ms. Truong My Lan. The loan application has many violations, the loan amount is large, and the risk of not being able to recover the debt is very high.

After that, following Ms. Lan’s direction, Mr. Van and SCB leaders repeatedly gave money and gifts to the inspection team for help and to cover up the violations. In particular, Mr. Van bribed the head of the inspection team, Ms. Do Thi Nhan, with a total amount of 5.2 million USD. However, C03 determined that Mr. Van followed Ms. Lan’s instructions, and this defendant also actively reported giving money to Ms. Nhan and other individuals during the inspection process.

Mr. Van also proactively denounced Ms. Nhan’s behavior and actively cooperated with the investigation agency, so C03 proposed not to consider bribery behavior against Mr. Van.

In this case, C03 determined that the entire inspection team received money from SCB, but Ms. Nhan alone was proposed to be prosecuted for “receiving bribes” for allegedly receiving 5.2 million USD to cover up and cover up SCB’s violations. .