Bau Kien and the appeal petition written in 50 hours

"Today is the third day of the trial, how is the health of the defendants?", the presiding judge opened the trial on the morning of December 2. During the interrogation, Mr. Kien was given the opportunity by the Court to present his appeal. He said he spent 50 hours writing this appeal.

Ms. Lan said that she started studying Enterprise Law from the day the case happened.

Regarding the activities at the companies, Mr. Kien admitted to buying shares, stocks or issuing bonds at the above companies, being the head of the board of directors, and signing the approval. "If there are any criminal acts at these companies, I will be the first and highest responsible person" - Mr. Kien affirmed.

Lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep asked defendant Kien to summarize the content of the complaint sent to the representative of the Supreme People's Procuracy. Immediately after, Mr. Kien "clarified" that it was an appeal and asked to read the full text in court.

Although a member of the panel of judges suggested that this part should be left in the debate, defendant Kien continued to ask to read it and promised to “read it quickly”, so the court accepted. However, the panel of judges also reminded that the Court of Appeal only considers the content of the appeal, not the complaint.

Defendant Kien was given the opportunity to present his appeal in court.

But while "expressing" his thoughts in the illegal business behavior section, Mr. Kien was reminded: "The defendant only summarizes the main content, the rest is in the next part" - the female judge (member of the jury) spoke up.

According to defendant Kien, when doing business, the first thing he thought of was learning legal knowledge to protect himself. Talking about the activities of companies, Mr. Kien analyzed: "Investing in stocks is a financial business. This is a concept that has not been regulated by any legal documents."

After the presentation, Mr. Kien appeared tired, asked to sit down and said: “It would be better for me if I could read it. I wrote this petition in 50 hours. If I could read it, I would only ask for 2 to 3 hours of the jury’s time.” Before stopping to present the business part of the 6 companies, defendant Kien concluded: “Those companies operate according to the law.”

During the presentation, Mr. Kien had to stop many times to rest and drink water. “My blood pressure is now 160/100, so I cannot speak continuously. Please let me rest for a bit” – Mr. Kien turned to the presiding judge, and immediately received approval from the panel of judges.

According to the presiding judge, the defendants' answers or presentations need to be noted, because they are in the interrogation phase. When there is a need to explain or clarify a certain content, the defendants should leave it for later.

Pregnant Kien's wife admitted to signing contracts as a wife.

B&B Company General Director signs contract as "a wife"

After presenting the main contents of the appeal petition, Mr. Kien was isolated so that the panel of judges could devote time to the next questioning session. At that time, the panel of judges called Ms. Dang Ngoc Lan (born in 1972, General Director of B&B Investment and Trade Joint Stock Company, wife of defendant Kien) to clarify some investment contracts of this company with related units. Ms. Lan said that there were many contracts, but she only signed very few (when her husband was away) and she could not remember the exact time.

Regarding the specific content of the contracts, Ms. Lan admitted: "I trust my husband, I believe that he did not give me any wrong content to sign, so I hardly read those contracts carefully before signing." "Do you know what the responsibility of the person signing these contracts is?" - a member of the jury spoke up. "I signed these contracts as a wife, trusting my husband" - Ms. Lan answered in tears. At this moment, the jury had to remind the representative of the civil defendant to stay calm to answer the questions, helping the jury clarify the nature of the case.

“I acted on the basis of trust in my husband. I also do not deny that I am a person with full capacity for action, although it may be beneficial to me to say otherwise,” said Ms. Lan. “Have you read the Enterprise Law?” asked a member of the jury. “Up to now, I have never had to do anything, but due to recent events, I have had to take charge of the company’s operations. Therefore, I had to spend time studying some related documents. But honestly, that was the development of the last 2 years, before that I did not study anything,” Ms. Lan confessed.