Bank official gets life imprisonment in ever biggest swindling case in Vietnam

After three weeks of trial, the Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City People's Court on Monday announced sentences to a bank official, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, and her accomplices, who involved in the biggest-ever striking swindle case in Vietnam, local media reported Monday. Accordingly, the 36-year-old woman, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, a former official at the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of "swindling to appropriate assets" and " counterfeiting seals and materials of agencies and organizations," local online Tuoi Tre daily reported. Nhu was believed to appropriate nearly 4 trillion VND (188.7 million U.S.dollars) from three banks, nine companies, and three individuals. Meanwhile, Vo Anh Tuan, ex-vice director of Vietinbank's Nha Be branch in HCM City, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and the 21 other defendants received sentences from one suspended year to 17 years in jail, said the report. The court ordered Nhu to return to her victims all the money she had appropriated from them. The jury also rejected the claim by some lawyers that Vietinbank must be responsible for the money appropriated by Nhu. According to the indictment announced by the prosecutor's office, in early 2007, Nhu, abusing her position and trust, mobilized more than 200 billion VND (9.43 million U.S. dollars) in capital from many banks, organizations, and individuals at high interest rates to invest in real estate. In order to pay the loans, Nhu had borrowed money from a loan shark, Pham Huu Chi, since 2008 at exorbitant interest rates of 0. 5-0.6 percent per day, over 10 times higher than the highest lending rate regulated by the State Bank of Vietnam at that time. Two years later, Nhu began to fall into insolvency and turned to swindling in order to repay her debts. From March 2010 until September 2011, under the false pretext of mobilizing capital for two Vietinbank branches, Nhu obtained loans totaling 4,911 billion VND (231.65 million U.S. dollars) from three individuals, nine companies, and three banks. In the process to obtain the loans, Nhu forged nearly 200 documents, including 110 false contracts between Vietinbank's Nha Be Branch and businesses. She also hired others to counterfeit eight stamps of Vietinbank and eight companies. After using more than 925 billion VND (43.63 million U.S. dollars) of this sum to repay her previous loans and the interest, which was 0.2-4 percent per day incurred to four of her creditors, Nhu appropriated the remaining amount, investigators said. Among the three above banks, Nhu appropriated 718 billion VND from Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), 200 billion VND from Nam Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank, and 180 billion VND from Vietnam International Bank's HCM City Branch. During the investigation of the case, concerned agencies discovered and seized many properties owned by Nhu, but the total value of these is only about 230 billion VND (10.85 million U.S. dollars), much smaller than the total amount the woman appropriated, reported Tuoi Tre newspaper.