Former female director of OceanBank Hai Phong branch was sentenced to death

On April 5, the Hanoi High People’s Court continued the appellate trial of the case “Embezzlement of property”, which happened at Ocean Bank (OceanBank) Hai Phong branch.

Court scene.

The defendants in the case include Tran Thi Kim Chi, former director of OceanBank’s Hai Phong branch, Le Vuong Hoang (controller), Nguyen Thi Minh Hue (accountant) and Chu Van Nha (treasurer).

At the court, the defendants Hoa, Hoang and Hue all admitted to the crime and declared that they had withdrawn savings books, received deposits, and paid external interests under the direction of defendant Chi. Thereby, the defendants embezzled more than 413 billion VND.

At the appellate court, defendant Hoa claimed that defendant Chi used embezzled money to gamble, buy real estate and personal expenses, but there were no supporting documents.

Meanwhile, defendant Chi said that he did not know the payment of foreign interest. This happens when the bank’s tellers work directly with customers.

The former director of OceanBank Hai Phong branch repeatedly said that at the appellate session, the Procuracy still charged based on the testimony of other defendants, which was not objective. The female defendant asked the jury to clarify the cash flow (more than 413 billion VND) that the defendant was accused of “Embezzlement”.

Defendant Chi asserted in court that he did not use the bank’s money to buy a house, gamble and for personal expenses. The defendant’s home was purchased with business money from the family company. Up to now, the defendant does not know where the money he is accused of embezzlement is. Many details in the case have not been clarified yet.

Meanwhile, a representative of OceanBank expressed the view that the case shows signs of neglecting criminals and offenders; the evidence to clarify the path of the cash flow that the former director of OceanBank’s branch is accused of appropriating during the investigation, prosecution and first-instance trial stages has not been clarified to serve as a basis for recovering the stolen money. won.

In particular, in the notebook Hoang Lap showed, there were 860 transactions related to customers in this case, the defendants collected a total of more than 332 billion VND, spent more than 296 billion VND. In addition, this book also shows that there are 1,149 transactions involving other subjects, not customers in this case, earning more than 227 billion VND and spending more than 280 billion VND. This book has been examined but has not been considered as evidence in the case. In which, many amounts are consistent with the statements of interest payments outside the banking system, which are high interest rate traps that cause customers to lose their vigilance, conduct transactions that are not in accordance with regulations, processes, and transactions of a private nature. with the defendants in the case.

The lawyer representing OceanBank also stated that out of 79 savings cards of customers with the equivalent amount of more than 242 billion VND and nearly 2.8 million USD of customers’ savings, they should be kept out of the bookkeeping system. The defendants have signs of customer fraud. At the investigation stage, the Investigative Security Agency of the Ministry of Public Security also concluded and proposed the Supreme People’s Procuracy to prosecute this group of defendants for fraud with this amount. However, the first-instance judgment against the defendants for these acts of embezzlement was not satisfactory…

From the above analysis, the bank’s representative, the bank’s lawyer as well as Tran Thi Kim Chi’s lawyer all proposed the appellate panel to return the case file to the first instance level for re-investigation.

From 2012 to August 2019, Tran Thi Kim Chi colluded and directed employees who are controllers, accountants, and treasurers to commit acts of appropriation. money from the depositor, the bank at the branch by using personal information of relatives, branch staff, and customers to set up 109 savings cards with a total value of more than 2.5 billion VND (each card saving from 5 to 50 million dong).

After obtaining the low-value savings cards, these subjects made the final settlement, falsified the customer’s previously submitted savings card mortgage loan documents to open a new savings card. Use blanks of opened savings cards to print deposit transactions for customers to receive money from customers that are not put into the banking system.

4 defendants at the appellate court

Accordingly, this group made a file for short-term settlement of savings cards of 14 customers to withdraw more than 110 billion dong deposited at a bank branch for management and spending purposes; received 242 billion VND and nearly 2.8 million USD from customers but did not account for the banking system, but handed it over to the former Branch Manager to spend and spend. In order to conceal this amount of money from customers, the defendants set up 79 customer savings cards that were left outside the banking system and then handed over the fake cards to customers.

According to the assessment of the jury of the Hanoi High People’s Court, the defendants are bank officials, have positions and powers at the bank, and have used tricks to appropriate money, committing the crime of “Property embezzlement”. . Therefore, the Appellate Court rejected the OcenanBank’s appeal, upheld the first-instance judgment against the former director of OceanBank Hai Phong branch and his accomplices on charges of embezzlement. In which, defendant Tran Thi Kim Chi was sentenced to death; Le Vuong Hoang, Nguyen Thi Minh Hue were sentenced to life imprisonment; Chu Van Nha was sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzlement.

The appellate judgment also ordered OceanBank to compensate the full amount of principal and interest for 27 customers who had deposited money at Hai Phong Branch. Defendant Tran Thi Kim Chi must pay compensation of 353.3 billion VND and 2.7 million USD and the amount of interest incurred to OceanBank.