Trial of Nghe An "beauty" who embezzled more than 50 billion VND

Nguyen Thi Lam and 15 defendants were prosecuted by the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province for the crimes of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Intentionally violating state regulations on economic management causing serious consequences".

Previously, the People's Court of Nghe An province decided to hold the first instance trial at 7:30 a.m. on April 26 for Nguyen Thi Lam and her accomplices. However, the trial on the morning of April 26 had to be postponed because on April 20, the People's Court of Nghe An province received a request to postpone the trial from Mr. Le Van Quyet - General Director of Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank.

It is known that Eximbank requested to postpone the trial because April 26 is too close to the time Eximbank holds its shareholders' meeting (scheduled to be held on April 28).

Subject Nguyen Thi Lam. Photo: Khanh An

Nguyen Thi Lam (born in 1987), residing in Yen Huong hamlet, Yen Son commune, Do Luong, graduated from high school, Lam studied at Nghe An College of Economics (now Nghe An University of Economics).

After graduating, Lam worked for a while as an accountant at the family business, then at the end of 2010, he started working as an intern at Eximbank Vinh branch.

In March 2011, Lam was hired as a cashier at the Do Luong Transaction Office, Eximbank Vinh City Branch, with the task of collecting and disbursing cash, checking customers' loan applications, mobilizing capital, lending according to targets...

Still young, having worked at Eximbank for just over 5 years, but recently, people have noticed that Lam has become unusually rich by driving expensive cars, building houses, buying lots of land...

Through the work of grasping the situation, using professional measures, the authorities found that Lam had signs of the crime of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property" under Article 140 of the Penal Code, and project 916E was established.

On September 19, 2016, the Investigation Agency issued a decision to prosecute the case. At this time, Lam was absent from the locality. Through persuasion, on September 21, 2016, Lam turned himself in and confessed his illegal acts.

On September 24, 2016, Dang Dinh Hong (born in 1973), former Director of Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office, was urgently arrested. Expanding the investigation, the authorities prosecuted the remaining defendants.

Subject Dang Dinh Hong, Former Director of Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office. Photo: Khanh An

According to the indictment of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province, from 2012 to 2016, Nguyen Thi Lam took advantage of customers' trust, deceived customers into signing payment orders, signed fake payment authorizations, and payment statements.

Every time he needed a customer's signature, Lam used tricks such as paying interest and bonuses to customers and mixing these procedures with documents such as payment orders, cash statements, and payment authorizations for customers to sign in vain.

Then, Lam took it home to legalize the withdrawal or transfer of money. There were also many cases where Lam forged the customer's signature and then took it to the bank staff, lying that he was withdrawing or transferring money on behalf of the customer.

Due to trust in Lam, due to the loose direction and management of Dang Dinh Hong - Former Director of Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office, bank employees processed procedures for Lam to withdraw and transfer money even though the customer's savings book was in their possession and the customer was not present.

Using the above tricks, Lam withdrew deposits from 6 customers in Nghe An in the Eximbank banking system with a total amount of more than 50 billion VND.

Lam was prosecuted for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" under Point a, Clause 4, Article 189, Penal Code 1999. The subjects Dang Dinh Hong - Former Director of Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office, Tran Kim Thoa (born in 1982, former Deputy Head of Credit Department of Eximbank Vinh branch) were also prosecuted for the crime of "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences" under Clause 3, Article 165, Penal Code 1999.