Many irresponsible bank officials let a woman defraud billions.

On January 31, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first-instance trial of Nguyen Anh Thang (31 years old) and Dao Hoang Hai (31 years old) for fraud and appropriation of property and counterfeiting of seals and documents of organizations. The mastermind of the case, Nguyen Mai Anh, is undergoing mandatory psychiatric treatment.

According to the prosecution, in early April 2014, Mai Anh called an employee of Euro Auto Corporation to ask about the procedures for buying a car. During the conversation, she said she needed to buy a BMW car but had just given birth so she did not come directly to meet them but would have someone contact her to do the procedures.

On April 3, 2014, following Mai Anh's instructions, Thang took a fake ID card to Euro Auto to sign a contract to buy a BMW X5 worth 3.3 billion VND, depositing 30 million VND. More than a month later, Thang continued to impersonate someone else to buy a BMW 528i worth 2.5 billion VND, depositing 20 million VND.

Thang's actions were aimed at obtaining a receipt and stamp from Euro Auto. Mai Anh and her accomplices then falsified Euro Auto's documents to open accounts at An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank and Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank to prepare for withdrawing money.After opening a Euro Auto account, Mai Anh and her accomplices went to other banks to apply for loans.

According to the case file, at the same time, Thang impersonated Mr. Nguyen Van Chan - Deputy Director of Dong Do Trading and Service Development Company Limited to go to Bao Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank to borrow 1.5 billion VND to buy a car.

The bank agreed to lend money for a period of 48 months with a BMW X5 as collateral. Bao Viet then disbursed the money to Nguyen Van Chan's fake loan account opened at this bank. Based on the payment order, the bank transferred 1.5 billion VND from the above account to Euro Auto's account. Immediately after that, following Mai Anh's instructions, Hai used a fake ID card to go to An Binh Bank and used a Euro Auto check (forged) to withdraw money.

Using the same method, Mai Anh and her accomplices appropriated money from Bao Viet and several banks, totaling 8.1 billion VND.

After the case was discovered, Mai Anh suddenly suffered from mental illness.The forensic examination concluded that she suffered from severe depressive episode of bipolar disorder, leading to loss of cognitive ability and behavioral control.

In 2016, the Hanoi People's Procuracy decided to apply compulsory medical treatment. The investigation agency also separated the criminal case, temporarily suspended the investigation of the defendant and will resume the investigation after the results of compulsory medical treatment are available.

In court, Thang confessed that Mai Anh asked him to sign the loan documents. All the loan procedures were done at Mai Anh's house, except for the payment authorization, which was done at the bank. "The defendant did not receive any money from Mai Anh, but before that, Mai Anh lent the defendant 150 million VND, so the defendant signed the loan documents," Thang explained.

Meanwhile, Hai admitted that because of greed, he listened to Mai Anh to register the loan application and withdraw the money. After doing so, the defendant was given 50 million VND by Mai Anh.

The jury assessed that Mai Anh’s act of falsifying documents was very sophisticated. However, the credit officers of the banks were negligent in not verifying the mortgaged car papers. The credit officers’ violations could be criminally prosecuted for the crime of Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences. The banks’ request to internally handle the credit officers had assisted the credit officers in their wrongdoing.

The court sentenced Thang to 20 years in prison and Hai to 18 years for the two crimes.