” LOSING MY MIND”
Around 36, 000 people have been identified as SCB’s survivors of the scam.
Nguyen Thi Huong, a seller of noodles online, told AFP that she wanted to pass away after purchasing a bond in 2022 after losing all of her US$ 20,000 benefits.
I felt as though I was losing my mind when I learned that I had lost everything I had deposited at SCB Bank, Huong, 33.
She said she suffered from depression, her health deteriorated as a result, and she no longer had the money to pay for her children’s education, causing them to fall behind their peers.
” I sat by my father’s grave, and wished he would get me with him in death”, Huong said.
According to a report from earlier in the week, Lan and her associates allegedly stole around US$ 18 billion from SCB between first 2018 and October 2022. Lan essentially held a 90 % stake in the company.
According to state media, Lan, the head of Van Thinh Tubby, a major real estate developer, ordered her accomplices to withdraw money and get it out of SCB’s system.
The money was then hidden and used to settle business debts or be transferred worldwide to make up deals.
As her most recent trial began, hundreds of patients in the case staged protests in northern Hanoi, requesting that authorities assist them in getting their money back.
Lan had apologised to the patients in court, according to state media, and said she was” never a bad people”.
She was found guilty of embezzling US$$ 2.5 billion in April, and she is appealing the decision, though no date has been set for it. She was given the death penalty.
According to the prosecution, the full damage incurred totaled US$ 27 billion, or roughly 6 % of Vietnam’s gross domestic product in 2023.