"Big case" Huyen Nhu: Clarifying the trillion-dollar scams

This morning, January 7, the Trial Council questioned the key figure in the 'big case' of appropriating 4,000 billion VND - Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu about the tricks of borrowing and appropriating thousands of billions.

Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu (white shirt) at court on the morning of January 7.

Death by real estate

On the second day of the trial of the “big case”, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu once again attracted attention in a stylish white shirt… At the opening session, this defendant also wore a pink shirt with a trendy design.

The jury questioned, from whom and how did Nhu borrow money? Nhu answered, she borrowed money at very high interest rates from many people. “The defendant was pursued by creditors and threatened by gangsters, so the defendant had to find every way to get money to pay off the debt,” Nhu admitted.

Accordingly, in early 2010, through Tran Hoang Trung (a stockbroker), Nhu learned that Pacific Petroleum Transport Joint Stock Company had a large source of money. Due to pressure from investing about 200 billion VND in real estate everywhere and going bankrupt, Nhu used her banking expertise to carry out a plan to defraud and appropriate assets.

According to the indictment, before committing the crime, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu was only 30 years old but had the ambition to get rich quickly and carried out million-dollar investment deals and real estate with a large number of purchases and transactions.

By the time Huyen Nhu was prosecuted for fraud and appropriation of property by the first lawsuits, this tycoon still owned dozens of real estates including luxury apartments, land, villas in Nam Phu villa area (District 7), An Phu Dong (District 12), villas in Sanctuary tourist area in Xuyen Moc - Ba Ria Vung Tau (these two have a market price of over 1 million USD/unit), villas in Dien Ban (Quang Nam), Ruby apartment in Ruby tower (Saigon Pearl residential area), Orient Apartment (District 4) and real estate in Da Lat, Lam Dong... and some money was used to buy real estate at five real estate companies.

Huyen Nhu used and owned up to three cars, the most expensive one costing 3.6 billion VND. All the money for investing and buying expensive assets was largely due to Huyen Nhu borrowing money at high interest rates (up to 3.7%/day). Investing in real estate spread out with money borrowed from banks and individuals, by mid-2010 real estate transactions began to become difficult, but the interest still had to be paid on time.

The case file shows that in her dealings with her old business partners, Huyen Nhu was a person who kept her promises. But the old debt and new interest kept accumulating and the real estate could not be sold, causing “the next time she lent money, she paid higher interest than the last time” which was the reason why this tycoon was in debt. And finally, to escape, the female tycoon cheated a series of businesses and individuals to take advantage of one place to hit another, causing many businesses and banks to suffer.

Fraudulently raising money to appropriate

As Nhu told the jury when carrying out the first plan of a series of frauds, Nhu went to meet Pham Anh Tuan (General Director of Thai Binh Duong Company) to mobilize money to deposit at Vietinbank, Ho Chi Minh City Branch. However, to carry out the appropriation of Thai Binh Duong Company's deposit, Nhu had a contract prepared, signed by Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Huong (Deputy Director), and stamped by Vietinbank Ho Chi Minh City Branch to sign a contract to mobilize 1,500 billion VND from Thai Binh Duong Company.

Answering the question of the jury, Nhu mobilized 1,500 billion VND to pay interest elsewhere, then paid high interest both inside and outside the contract to Thai Binh Duong Company, so did Nhu think that there was enough money to pay Thai Binh Duong Company or not? In addition, did defendant Nhu see his behavior as deceitful in appropriating money from Thai Binh Duong Company...?

Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu softly replied, she knew it was wrong, but had to pay interest both in the contract and outside, so the defendant withdrew all 80 billion VND from Thai Binh Duong Company to use to pay interest to two individuals she borrowed from outside at very high interest rates, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lanh and Nguyen Thien Ly.

Two suspects, Lanh and Ly, were also prosecuted in this case on charges of loan sharking.

According to TPO