HANOI: Prosecution proceedings have been filed against Pham Thi Hoa, former chairwoman of the popular traditional medicine therapy spa chain Sen Tai Thu Group JSC.
Hoa, 68, and her accomplices were allegedly involved in a fraud and money laundering case worth more than VNĐ1.72 trillion (US$65.7 million).
Other defendants – including the company’s former director general Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, 36, and former deputy director general Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, 45.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan, 49, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Tu, 39, both residents at the Royal City complex in Hanoi – were also prosecuted.
According to the indictment, between October 2020 and June 2023, due to financial difficulties and personal spending needs, Hoa, Huong, and Linh conspired to inflate the charter capital of Sen Tai Thu Group, signing fixed-term share transfer agreements to raise funds.
They allegedly hired collaborators, staff and sales agents who were provided with fabricated business strategy documents created by Huong and Linh.
These documents falsely claimed that Sen Tai Thu Group was seeing strong expansion with numerous branches opened and substantial profits.
Prospective investors were allegedly told that by transferring funds to purchase shares, they would receive high dividends and attractive returns.
Interest rates offered to them ranged from 9 to 13.5 per cent, depending on the contract term, with timely profit payments guaranteed.
They were also allegedly promised the option to withdraw capital before maturity.
However, after contributing capital, investors were neither granted shareholder rights nor recorded in the company’s shareholder register, the indictment alleges.
Through this scheme, 459 victims invested a total of more than VNĐ1.72 trillion in Sen Tai Thu Group under share transfer contracts linked to Hoa.
After receiving the funds, Hoa, Huong and Linh allegedly used more than VNĐ737.2 billion ($28.1 million) to pay partial returns to investors.
The remaining amount, worth over VNĐ988 billion ($37.7 million), was allegedly appropriated by Hoa and her accomplices.
The scheme was exposed after 266 victims filed complaints about the allegedly fraudulent activities.
According to the indictment, Lan and Tu also falsely claimed to have close connections with senior officials, promising that they could help Sen Tai Thu Group’s management avoid criminal prosecution or receive a lighter sentence.
Out of the VNĐ26 billion ($993,000) allegedly received to rig the case, they gave VNĐ1 billion to a lawyer for legal consultation for Hương.
Lan allegedly appropriated the remaining VNĐ25 billion, using VNĐ9.5 billion ($363,000) to purchase an apartment at Royal City, an upscale urban area in Hanoi, and depositing savings in her daughter’s name to conceal the illicit origin of the funds. - Vietnam News/ANN
