Female bank director embezzled 2,600 taels of gold, escaped death sentence

Most of the damages are recoverable, the female director who embezzled 2,600 taels of gold was also given many other mitigating circumstances by the court.

On December 15, after more than a week of trial, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Nguyen Thi Hoang Oanh (57 years old, former director of Agribank Ben Thanh) to life in prison for embezzlement, bribery and 12 years in prison for violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions.

The total sentence is life imprisonment. Previously, the prosecutor requested the court to sentence Oanh to death.

According to the panel of judges, Oanh’s crime should have been punished with the highest penalty as the prosecutor’s opinion. However, most of the consequences of the case can be recovered, the house the defendant bought with Agribank gold and many other real estates have been used to remedy the consequences, nearly 25 billion VND received in bribes was also used by the defendant to pay off debts for previous loans.

The court also noted that Ms. Oanh had a long time of dedication to the bank and was awarded medals... so it applied many favorable circumstances to reduce part of the defendant's sentence.

Ms. Oanh looked haggard after many days of trial. Photo: Hai Duyen.

During the trial, Oanh argued that the nature of the gold withdrawal from Agribank Ben Thanh was to enhance the position of this branch, so she requested to set up another transaction office. The gold withdrawal to buy a house on Tran Quang Khai Street, District 1 was to make a transaction office.

The court found this statement baseless because the defendant used Agribank gold to buy a house but converted it into personal property, putting it in his daughter's name. Then, he rented it to Agribank as a transaction office for 5,800 USD per month.

The wrongdoings of Oanh and her accomplices were very bold. Oanh also used a legal entity of a company under her son-in-law's name to file a new gold loan from Agribank and then used it to roll over the previous loan to conceal her criminal acts.

The judgment stated,The 6 defendants who are Oanh's subordinates are all qualified people., banking operations, capable of knowing whether the documents were legal or not but still signed and approved. Each defendant is an important link that helped Oanh commit wrongdoings for a long time.

To embezzle money from Agribank Ben Thanh branch, Oanh and her accomplices committed a series of violations, creating fake loan and withdrawal records and debt restructuring. When the case was discovered, the consequences were extremely serious.

The defendants were fully aware that their actions would have consequences, but they still ignored them. Therefore, the panel of judges had no basis to accept the defendants’ defense that they did not commit the crime of embezzlement. Based on the grounds and details clarified at the trial, the panel of judges concluded that the defendants’ actions constituted the crimes as alleged by the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

From there, the court sentenced 6 defendants, former Agribank officials, to 11 to 26 years in prison for the crimes of embezzlement and violation of lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions. Huynh Ngoc Thach (General Director of Lien Luc Dia Company, Oanh's son-in-law) received 15 years in prison for embezzlement.

For the defendantLe Van Tinh(55 years old, director of Kim Gia Thuan Company Limited), the People's Court sentenced Tinh to life in prison for the crimes of Fraudulent appropriation of property and Bribery. According to the court, Tinh was the leader, establishing many companies but not for business purposes but to borrow more than 5,600 taels of gold from Agribank and then embezzle.

Knowing that his profile did not meet the loan requirements, Tinh worked directly with Oanh and accepted the offer to "borrow gold but receive money". Although he knew the market value of gold was 21 million VND per tael, Tinh still agreed to receive money equivalent to 19 million VND per tael.

The defendant asked relatives and subordinates to establish many companies under their names with the support of Oanh, who used the mortgaged assets for the previous loan contract to secure the next loan contract to repay the debt. The borrowed money, Tinh did not use for the right purpose but lent it to others, leading to the inability to pay.

Accomplice of Tinh in the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property, his wife received 4 years in prison while his daughter and subordinate received 3 years in prison but with suspended sentences.

According to the investigation, during her appointment as Director of Agribank Ben Thanh branch (2008-2009), Oanh used the names of 8 individuals to create fake documents to borrow 2,660 taels of gold (47 billion VND) to buy a house on Tran Quang Khai street (District 1) and then put her daughter in the name. She leased it to Agribank for 5,800 USD per month to open the Far East Transaction Office and received a total of more than 5.6 billion VND from the bank.

Oanh directed her brother-in-law Truong The Thanh (head of the credit department) to use the legal entity of Huynh Ngoc Thach's (Oanh's son-in-law) company and several other businesses to continue borrowing gold from Agribank to pay off debts. Currently, she still owes the bank 44 billion VND.

In addition, Oanh also approved a loan of 13 billion VND for her brother-in-law to invest in real estate without any collateral. Due to his death, the Supreme People's Procuracy suspended the investigation.

In the deal with Mr. Tinh, Oanh received a bribe of nearly 25 billion VND from the difference in the conversion of gold into money.

According to VNE