On the morning of March 12, the trial of the Van Thinh Phat case continued with the questioning of the defendants' lawyers.

Responding to lawyer Phan Trung Hoai's question about the process of being detained until the trial date, defendant Truong My Lan thanked the Court and the agencies for caring about her health and creating a good environment for her.

“ Given the extremely serious nature of the case, the indictment, the statements of the other defendants and your presentation, what are your true thoughts on your importance in the case?” , asked Lawyer Phan Trung Hoai.

Defendant Truong My Lan said that she personally respected the indictment, the investigation agency and the statements of the other defendants.

"What brought you to SCB?" , the lawyer asked.

According to Ms. Lan, her assets were established by her mother and later developed. Her mother was a merchant at Ben Thanh market for 14 years, then her family established Van Thinh Phat Company Limited. In 1992, she met her husband Chu Lap Co and they became a couple....

In this part, the defendant spoke in circles and was interrupted many times by the panel of judges because his answers were not focused and he was asked to answer the question directly.

"Why did you know about SCB at the time of the merger of 3 credit institutions? ", lawyer Hoai asked.

At this time, the defendant burst into tears: " Thinking about that day, I feel pain. At that time, the 3 banks were in chaos, many people were invited but did not dare to enter. No one in my family worked in banking, I did not want to work in banking but the State Bank asked me to help with 3 things: how to consolidate the shares over 65% to help the bank without affecting other banks, without affecting the national currency; lend assets; call in foreign partners", defendant Lan stated.

According to defendant Lan, when the three banks met in October 2011, the State Bank invited the defendant to attend the meetings to lend assets. At that time, they said they needed me to help lend the Winsor Hotel - the first 5-star hotel in Vietnam - as collateral for the assets.

" I mortgaged the bank to lend BIDV 15,000 billion through Mr. Tran Bac Ha (former Chairman of BIDV Board of Directors). There were 3 days left to merge but Mr. Ha withdrew because he said the debt was too large. I went home to discuss with my husband to take all the family assets to pay the debt. After that, Mr. Ha withdrew so I had to go to liquidate the mortgage, at that time it was midnight. I had to mortgage to the State Bank to borrow 15,000 billion, then borrow another 3,000 billion ", Ms. Lan explained.

Lawyer: " Do you see what the legal consequences will be when using mortgaged assets to borrow from a bank for restructuring?"

"With a real estate mindset, I believe it will be successful. If I lend money to the bank and the bank cannot recover, I will lose everything," defendant Lan said, having determined to take a "risky" attitude when giving assets to SCB.

Regarding the accusation of acquiring shares at SCB, Ms. Lan affirmed that the shares were not hers but those of her friends. Explaining the reason why everyone agreed to contribute to SCB, the defendant said that because her family "lives simply, is moral, and prestigious, so they have influence and are respected."

Attorney Hoai cited the court testimony of former SCB leaders and employees who said that Ms. Lan had power and a leadership role at SCB. Ms. Lan explained that because at SCB, no one appeared except her, so they mistakenly thought she was the owner.

" Apart from lending assets and finding investors, I don't know anything else. I don't know about the assigned tasks... I have put all my assets into SCB. Regarding the SCB brothers, I ask the jury to reconsider. They are really suffering," said Ms. Lan.

Regarding the indictment stating that there are many "ghost" companies in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem, Ms. Lan said that all loans have collateral, so how can they be called ghost companies and " requested the People's Court to consider carefully because my loans all have assets, balances... and I don't understand what a ghost company is" .

The defendant expressed his desire to compensate for the damages in the case, and asked the panel of judges to help transfer 1,000 billion VND that defendant Nguyen Cao Tri returned to him to SCB, "SCB is in dire need of money to solve financial problems".

In addition, Ms. Lan also agreed to provide 13 other assets outside the list of seizures and blockades to remedy the consequences of the case.