Eric Chu, husband of Truong My Lan, president of Van Thinh Phat, seen at the people’s court in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
Hong Kong property tycoon Eric Chu said he never knew letting his wife Truong My Lan use a building as collateral would put him in the dock.
Chu, who is on trial for encouraging his wife, chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat, to cause a loss of VND9.12 trillion ($369 million) to Saigon Commercial Bank, told the Ho Ho People’s Court on Tuesday Chi Minh City which he had signed for the first time. a document in 2012 on his opinion.
This involved mortgaging the six-story Times Square building in HCMC District 1 as security for a loan from SCB. Chu is the chairman and owned 99% of Times Square Vietnam, the company that owns the building.
In 2017, he signed a second time, thinking it was similar to the previous time, since he wanted to help restructure SCB.
His wife did not discuss the use of the loans with him.
When his lawyer asked him why he signed without knowing Vietnamese, he replied that he trusted his wife and staff and that he had signed many documents before without any problems.
Chu said he did not understand Vietnamese laws and therefore unintentionally violated them.
At the time, he never thought that signing them would one day allow him to stand trial.
He said he wanted to help offset the bank’s losses.
Two officials from the State Bank of Vietnam also responded to lawyers’ questions about their alleged violations by covering up SCB’s wrongdoing and receiving bribes in return.
Do Thi Nhan, a former chief bank inspector, said the audit was carried out on the orders of her boss, Nguyen Van Hung, a former deputy chief inspector.
She said she first met Lan only to convince her to sell part of SCB’s assets to pay her debts.
Hung admitted ordering Nhan to audit the bank, but said he did not pay much attention to it because he was preparing to retire soon.
In the current trial, Lan has been accused of corruption and banking crimes. regulations and embezzlement for allegedly embezzling VND304 trillion ($12.31 billion) from SCB.
She is accused of causing losses of 498,000 billion dong to the bank.
