Former General Director of SJC appears in court for illegally stamping 6,255 taels of exclusive gold bars
Smuggling gold purchased from outside shops into the factory to produce 6,255 taels of SJC gold bars against regulations and then selling them outside, the former General Director of SJC earned a profit of more than 64 billion VND.
Today (September 25), the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened the first instance trial of defendant Le Thuy Hang (55 years old, former General Director of Saigon Jewelry Company - SJC) and 15 accomplices for the crimes of "Embezzlement of property" and "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".
The trial is scheduled to take place from September 25 to 30, with Judge Doan Thi Huong Giang presiding.
SJC Company was summoned to court as both a victim and a person with related rights and obligations. The court also summoned the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and 115 individuals to court as persons with related rights and obligations.
According to the indictment, SJC Company was assigned by the State Bank to produce and reprocess dented gold bars, produce SJC gold rings and sell SJC gold bars to stabilize prices. The company was also allowed to proactively determine the price of SJC gold bars.
Every time SJC processes, the State Bank will establish a Supervisory Team to monitor the entire process at Tan Thuan Gold Factory. The Supervisory Team consists of 4 members, assigned different tasks, directly monitoring and via camera all stages of gold bar processing.
Despite the State Bank's close supervision, taking advantage of loopholes, Ms. Hang and her subordinates still imported raw gold from outside to produce SJC gold bars against regulations, then sold them on the market, earning tens of billions of dong in profit.
Accordingly, Ms. Hang directed Mai Quoc Uy Vien (former Director of SJC gold factory) and Tran Tan Phat (former Deputy Director of SJC gold factory) to insert additional raw gold from outside into 56 batches of SJC reprocessing the dented gold according to the request of the State Bank. From there, 6,255 taels of SJC gold bars were produced against regulations, causing a loss of more than 74 billion VND, illegally profiting more than 64 billion VND.
In addition, Ms. Hang also directed defendant Nguyen Thi Hue (Director of SJC Hai Phong branch) to buy raw gold from outside and give it to Phat to produce more than 11,503 taels of SJC gold rings, contrary to regulations.
Ms. Hang was also accused of instructing the Director of the SJC Hai Phong branch, the Director of the SJC Central branch and the Head of the SJC Gold Trading Department to sell only a portion of the gold at a price stabilization level to customers. The remaining portion was kept for sale outside at a higher price than the listed price, in violation of regulations.
Former General Director "ate" gold scraps
In addition to gold production, Ms. Hang was also accused of masterminding the appropriation of 95 taels of gold from SJC.
According to the indictment, in mid-2024, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) delivered 2 batches of 10 tons of raw gold to SJC Company to process and produce SJC gold bars. However, Ms. Hang directed Vien and Phat to prepare a "false" report to increase the loss rate in processing gold bars.
Then, Phat and his staff took 91 taels of gold out of the 10 tons of gold that the State Bank delivered, produced them into 5-chi SJC gold rings, and gave them to Ms. Hang.
While periodically sweeping the factory to collect gold scraps, Phat and his employees continued to embezzle 4 taels of gold, melted them into 3 small gold bars and gave them to Ms. Hang.
The indictment determined that Ms. Hang's crimes caused damage to state assets of VND95.7 billion, of which Ms. Hang personally benefited VND73.5 billion.
