Le Thuy Hang and four former SJC officials – Mai Quoc Uy Vien, gold workshop director; Tran Tan Phat, deputy gold workshop director; Hoang Le Hue, director of SJC's Central region branch; and Doan Le Thanh, head of the gold smelting and casting team at the Tan Thuan gold workshop – were prosecuted on September 4th by the Supreme People's Procuracy for embezzlement and abuse of power.

Among the 11 others prosecuted in the case for embezzlement or abuse of power are Tran Hien Phuc, chief accountant of SJC; Nguyen Thi Hue, director of SJC's Hai Phong branch; and Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, manager of the store at 193 Hung Vuong Street.

All 16 individuals were prosecuted and will stand trial at Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy is assigned to exercise the right of prosecution and supervise the first-instance trial.

Saigon Jewelry Company - SJC, a limited liability company wholly owned by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, primarily manufactures and trades gold bars. Prosecutors determined that in her capacity as CEO, Le Thuy Hang committed five main groups of violations, causing a loss of 95.7 billion VND to state assets and personally profiting 73.5 billion VND.

Specifically, in mid-2024, the State Bank of Vietnam delivered two batches of gold, totaling 10 tons, to Hang's SJC for processing and production of SJC gold bars. However, with the intent to embezzle assets under her management, Hang directed subordinates to create false reports to inflate the loss rate during the gold bar processing.

Based on these false reports, SJC's chief accountant drafted and formalized a new regulation on loss rates, applying it to the processing. Hang then approved the allocation of gold material losses at a rate of 0.0005 chi per product.

Ultimately, Hang reported the total gold loss from processing the 10 tons to the State Bank, embezzling 95.8 taels of gold. Of this amount, Hang is accused of personally taking over 85 taels, worth 6.6 billion VND.

Le Thuy Hang at a press conference on the afternoon of 16/5/2024. Photo: An Phuong

Le Thuy Hang at a press conference on the afternoon of 16/5/2024. Photo: An Phuong

In a separate incident, authorities allege that for personal gain, Hang exploited her position as CEO to direct the purchase and transfer of outside gold material into SJC. The workshop director then "inserted this external gold material into 56 batches of SJC gold being processed for the State Bank from damaged gold." Through the production of 6,255 taels of SJC gold bars against regulations, investigators claim a loss of 74.8 billion VND to state assets and an illicit profit of 64 billion VND.

At SJC's Central region branch, Hang directed the branch director to falsify documents to reflect "buying gold at high prices and selling gold at low prices", creating a false loss to embezzle 3.2 billion VND from SJC Central region. Hang personally profited 2.1 billion VND from this scheme.

At SJC's Hai Phong branch, Hang directed the branch director to purchase external gold material for the production of over 11,000 taels of SJC gold rings against regulations. This resulted in a personal profit of 6.6 billion VND for Hang and a 15 billion VND loss to state assets.

Hang also directed the head of SJC's gold trading department and the directors of the Central and Hai Phong branches to "sell only a portion of the price-stabilized gold to customers," instructing them to retain the rest for sale at higher prices.

From mid-June to the end of August 2024, under Hang's direction, the three branches falsified records showing the sale of 7,000 taels of gold to 4,342 customers, causing a 5.7 billion VND loss to state assets.

Pham Du