Court considers Vu 'Nhom's appeal

After more than a month of postponement, on the morning of May 27, the High-Level People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City will reopen the appeal hearing to consider the appeal of Phan Van Anh Vu (aka Vu "Nhom", Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bac Nam 79 Construction Joint Stock Company) against the 17-year prison sentence for the crime ofAbuse of power to appropriate property.

Vu argued that he did not commit a crime, and that the court of first instance had not comprehensively and objectively evaluated the evidence in the case file. The conclusions of the investigation agency and the evidence examined in court were inconsistent, so there was not enough basis to charge the defendant with abusing his position and power to appropriate property.

"The Supreme People's Procuracy's indictment is completely untrue and has no legal evidence. The accusation against me is based on unfounded speculations by the police investigation agency and there are signs of falsifying case files," Vu stated in his appeal.

The former chairman of Bac Nam Company cited that in court, Mr. Tran Phuong Binh (59 years old, former General Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dong A Bank - DAB) admitted to concealing the bank's situation from Vu, which is contrary to the content of the indictment. At the same time, Vu affirmed that he did not discuss or collude with DAB Bank officials to create fake documents to withdraw money from the bank.

The appeal also shows that Vu did not share or benefit from the fact that Bac Nam 79 Company borrowed 200 billion VND from Mr. Binh personally. Vu paid 203 billion VND to pay Mr. Binh, not to remedy the consequences.

Determined to play the role of the mastermind in the case, Mr. Tran Phuong Binh accepted the life sentence, only appealing to reconsider the amount of interest on the amounts of compensation required to be paid to DAB. He asked to take full civil responsibility on behalf of his subordinates and related people.

Nguyen Thi Kim Xuyen (former Deputy General Director of DAB) and 15 other defendants appealed for a reduced sentence for the crime.Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences; Abusing trust to appropriate property.

Regarding the case, defendant Nguyen Hong Anh (former officer of Ho Chi Minh City Police) appealed for a reduced sentence and requested a review of the compensation amount for DAB.

To serve the trial, in addition to the 26 defendants in the case, the court also summoned a representative of Dong A Bank as a witness.civil plaintiff, unithave related rights and obligationsand 350 other units and individuals.

The trial is expected to last until June 7.

According to the first instance verdict, during the 10 years of running DAB, Mr. Binh and his accomplices committed a series of violations causing losses of more than 3,600 billion VND. The former General Director was accused of appropriating more than 2,000 billion VND, of which more than 200 billion VND was transferred to Vu by signing fake share purchase and sale documents; he bought 13.4 million USD but Vu has not returned it to DAB.

The remaining loss of more than 1,500 billion VND was due to Mr. Binh directing his subordinates to illegally disburse funds to pay interest outside of the principle to mobilize capital of 470 billion VND, 385 billion VND for foreign exchange trading, more than 610 taels of gold in accounts, and 53 billion VND in the fraudulent settlement of a loan of 1,900 taels of gold for defendant Nguyen Hong Anh (former officer of Ho Chi Minh City Police).

Late last year, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Vu to 17 years in prison, combined with the 8-year prison sentence previously issued by the Hanoi High People's Court (which has come into effect), the defendant must receive 25 years in prison; forced to compensate more than 200 billion VND to DAB.

In addition, Vu was also recommended for investigation because it was believed that there were signs of other crimes related to the 13.4 million USD transaction with Mr. Binh.

Mr. Binh received a life sentence for two crimes.Intentionally violating state regulations on economic management causing serious consequences; Abusing trust to appropriate propertyOther defendants received 2 years suspended sentence to 30 years in prison.

In the second phase of the investigation into the violations that occurred at DAB, at the end of 2018, Mr. Binh and 9 subordinates continued to be prosecuted for the crime.Violation of regulations on other activities related to banking activitiesAccording to Article 206 of the 2015 Penal Code, the case aims to clarify the behavior of former bank officials who paid extra interest to a number of deposit organizations, related to loans belonging to the groups Hiep Phu Gia, Nguyen Thi Ngo, Tan Van Hung, Dong Tien and M&C.