The former model appeared in court with her legal representative and refused to speak to the press about the trial.
“I will answer all your questions once the judge announces his final decision,” she told reporters.
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Former model Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy (left) appears at the People’s Court in HCMC on September 18, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Hai Duyen |
Her ex-husband, Vietnamese-American businessman Nguyen Duc An, was absent from the trial, saying he had to care for his sick children. His legal representative, lawyer Nguyen Huu The Trach, attended on his behalf.
The trial is estimated to last three to five days.
An, 61, married Thuy, 43, a famous former model and actress nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe of Vietnam,” in 2006 after knowing each other for just a week.
They divorced in 2008.
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Former model Pham Thi Ngoc Thuy. Photo by Tien Nguyen |
An filed a complaint with the HCMC People’s Court in 2010, claiming that Thuy had failed to return 39 Vietnam-based assets – including several real estate properties, automobiles and stocks – that he had purchased with “money he had won before the marriage.
As a foreigner, he “had to register the properties in the name of Thuy”.
The Superior Court of California in his native state ruled that Thuy must return the properties to him because they “were purchased with his money.” [and not related to Thuy]”.
He said his children would be “entitled to the properties” if Thuy returned them.
But Thuy said in a 2014 interview with VnExpress that she and An had not signed a prenuptial agreement on the properties acquired during their marriage and therefore belonged to both of them.
The HCMC People’s Court announced in August this year that it would finally hold a trial in the case, after 13 years of waiting, since it had to “obtain documents relating to the disputed properties.”
However, the first trial, held on August 18, was adjourned because “several lawyers and persons with interests and obligations related to the case were not present.”
An also sent a letter to the court asking to make changes to the list of property he had asked Thuy to return.
He wanted to remove 13 of 39 assets from a list he submitted, including five villas in the coastal town of Phan Thiet, seven automobiles and a motorcycle, saying Thuy had sold those assets and “it would take longer at court “. check.”
But he asked Thuy to return an additional VND67.8 billion she had earned over the years by “renting nine of her luxury apartments in HCMC District 1,” as well as VND422 million and $447,000 that are found in three bank accounts that he had asked Thuy to return to him. opened in his name.
He rejected her claim that all properties acquired after their marriage should be shared equally between them, calling it “baseless.”