The trial of the accused Do Anh Dung, chairman of Tan Hoang Minh Group, and his accomplices is very heated, the most concerned are probably the victims who have invested money in buying bonds and are now waiting anxiously to recover. Some people have been deceived out of billions of dong, the verdict for Mr. Dung is one thing, but will investors be able to recover their hard-earned money? Thousands of people have attended the trial of the Tan Hoang Minh boss and accomplices in four days of trial from March 19 to 22 on issues of late interest payments and compensation for damages.
The purchase of Tan Hoang Minh bonds has been advocated by some victims' lawyers to protect their rights, requesting the People's Procuracy of Hanoi and the court at the same level to consider and resolve. In the trial, some victims argued that the bond purchase contract between investors and Tan Hoang Minh is a civil contract. Both parties have been and are fulfilling the contract and its legal contents, even when signing the contract, everyone knew that there were confirmations from banks and Bao Viet Securities Company. Bao Viet Securities Company also provided additional confirmation of holding bonds for professional investors. However, the Procuracy believes that the bond package issued by Tan Hoang Minh violates the law, so it is null and void, and the civil transactions between the victims and the corporation are null and void.
According to the law, only when the accused is determined to have committed a crime by a legally effective verdict, when it is determined that the accused has caused damage to the victims, when the responsibility of each accused is clearly defined, and when the amount of damage to each victim is determined. Only then is there a basis for enforcing the verdict to compel the offender to compensate for the damage, remedy the consequences for the victims. Only legal civil relationships allow the rights and obligations of the parties to be implemented according to the agreed content, if through a property loan contract or an investment contract, if one party confuses and misappropriates the property of the other party, the misappropriating party must be punished and must return the misappropriated amount.
In addition to the misappropriated amount, if the victim can prove that there are other arising damages, they must present evidence for the court to consider, meaning that if the victim can present sufficient evidence, they will be paid the interest arising from the misappropriated amount. However, this is very difficult because Tan Hoang Minh offered high interest rates to borrow money, presented unrealistic profits for investment, this is a fraudulent scheme, not a basis to demand payment for this fraudulent amount, as this information is a criminal scheme, not a legal civil agreement. But ultimately, how much compensation and in what form will have to await the judgment of the Trial Council with Do Anh Dung.
The amount of fraud is enormous and the number of victims is staggering in the cases in Vietnam up to now, so determining the rightful recipients and amounts will take a lot of time to avoid some people taking advantage of demanding money. In November 2023, the Supreme People's Procuracy issued an indictment to prosecute Do Anh Dung, chairman of Tan Hoang Minh Group, for the crimes of fraud and misappropriation of assets, his son Do Hoang Viet, deputy general director of Tan Hoang Minh, and 13 others were also indicted on the same charges. Tan Hoang Minh Company, established in 1993 with headquarters in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Dung holds 51% of the shares and five related companies, this is a group mainly investing in real estate targeting luxury buildings located in prime locations in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In early 2021, the financial situation of Tan Hoang Minh Group faced many difficulties, with nearly 20,000 billion dong in bank debts. Not to mention the eight bond packages that the company issued to overcome difficulties, Mr. Dung directed his son to find ways to issue corporate bonds separately to raise capital. Three subsidiary companies used by Tan Hoang Minh to issue bonds are Ngoi Sao Viet Real Estate Company, Sony Hotel Investment Service Joint Stock Company, and Mua Dong Palace Joint Stock Company. Legally, the documents showing the capital contributors on behalf of these companies are different individuals with independent tax declarations. However, the investigation results determined that the chairman of Tan Hoang Minh was the actual owner and operator of the companies. Due to the poor business results of these three companies, they did not meet the conditions for public bond issuance, so Do Anh Dung instructed his son to falsify financial reports to show profits to deceive state agencies.
The responsibility of the management agency also needs to be considered for allowing loopholes that Do Anh Dung could exploit for fraud. In July 2021, Do Anh Dung established a bond trading center under Tan Hoang Minh and appointed his son as the director in charge. Mr. Dung also delegated authority to the group's deputy general director and 21 individuals from subsidiary companies to sign cooperation investment bond contracts, but in reality, it was to sell to investors. The indictment stated that to build trust with the public, Mr. Dung directed subordinates to use the legal entities of the three subsidiary companies to create fake economic contracts such as stock trading, investment cooperation, the defendants also contacted some auditing companies to inflate financial reports from a state of business losses to profits to meet the conditions for bond issuance.
Mr. Dung and his accomplices were accused by the authorities of misappropriating over 8,600 billion dong from 6,630 customers through bond issuance. According to the indictment, the funds raised from fraudulent bond issuance were used by Tan Hoang Minh's chairman to pay over 5,100 billion dong to investors due before the deadline. During the trial, this case noted several special points. Firstly, it is rare that the accused almost fully returned the fraudulent amount to the prosecution agency, the prosecution agency temporarily held this amount before conducting an investigation to return it to investors. Mr. Dung and his family voluntarily returned over 5,600 billion dong out of 8,600 billion dong, even boasting that he added an extra 1 billion.
As a result, this is one of the cases with the fastest and most thorough recovery and remediation of consequences thanks to this sincerity, causing thousands of victims to petition for leniency for Do Anh Dung and his accomplices. During the trial, some victims mentioned the losses incurred due to the misconduct of the Tan Hoang Minh Group's leadership and accomplices. They requested to be compensated for both the principal and interest for the amount invested in a bond, while some victims expressed sympathy for the company, only requesting the principal amount and receiving the money back as soon as possible. Ms. H, an investor, invested 500 million dong to sign three bond purchase contracts with Tan Hoang Minh Group, and in court, she mentioned that the group had paid interest multiple times as promised without delay.
In court, the accused Do Anh Dung repeatedly reiterated that he never intended to misappropriate money from bond buyers, his purpose was to raise capital to serve the investment business activities of the group, not to deceive. He said: I understand that partners have saved their hard-earned money, trusted Tan Hoang Minh, so they bought bonds. Once again, I sincerely apologize to all investors and share understanding of the difficulties and losses of everyone. During the initial trial, all 15 defendants, including Mr. Dung, were charged with fraud and misappropriation of assets with sentences ranging from 12 to 25 years in prison.
With a series of mitigating circumstances as mentioned at the beginning of the debate, the representative of the supervisory agency requested that all 15 individuals be sentenced below the indictment range, with Do Anh Dung sentenced to 9 to 10 years in prison, Do Hoang Viet 5 to 6 years, and the remaining group 2 to 5 years in prison. According to the prosecutor's representative, all defendants confessed, repented, actively cooperated with the investigating authorities, made many contributions to society, especially the amount of over 8,600 billion dong misappropriated from investors has been fully remedied by the defendants, their families, and Tan Hoang Minh Group. An interesting development occurred after the defense lawyers and some victims presented their opinions, the prosecutor's representative mentioned that there were additional mitigating circumstances, with many victims continuing to request reduced penalties.
The defendants, the Ngôi Sao Việt company, one of the three companies under the Tan Hoang Minh Group, stepped forward to issue additional bonds of 2 billion dong to remedy the consequences. Therefore, the supervisory agency representative proposed reduced sentences for all 15 defendants compared to the initial proposal to encourage the defendants to continue to remedy the consequences. Do Anh Dung was sentenced to 8 to 9 years in prison, Do Hoang Viet 4 to 5 years, the remaining group 18 months but with a suspended sentence of up to 4 years. While the Vạn Thịnh Phát case of Trương Mỹ Lan has the highest and strictest sentences such as death penalty and life imprisonment, the Tan Hoang Minh case has many mitigating circumstances. The reason is that Do Anh Dung has made thorough remediation of consequences and shown sincere repentance, while Trương Mỹ Lan still stubbornly refuses to acknowledge her wrongdoings. This is also the humanity of the state agencies as well as the good philosophy of the Vietnamese people to beat the fleeing person, not to beat the person running back.