A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday sentenced 16 people, including the former chief executive officer of the Saigon Jewellery Company (SJC), to lengthy prison terms for corruption involving millions of dollars and hundreds of kilograms of gold.
Le Thuy Hang, SJC’s former CEO, was convicted of property embezzlement and abuse of power. She received a 25-year prison sentence after being found guilty of pocketing $2.7 million and causing $4 million in losses to the state and SJC through fraudulent schemes.
Her 15 accomplices, all SJC employees, received sentences ranging from two years, suspended, to more than 22 years in prison.
According to the verdict, between 2021 and 2024, Hang directed subordinates to inflate loss rates in processing 10 tonnes of gold bars, appropriating nearly 3.6 kilograms of gold. She also ordered the illegal manufacture and sale of 235 kilograms of SJC gold bars and tens of thousands of gold rings, while creating fake customer lists to smuggle 34 kilograms of gold.
“The defendants had conducted very sophisticated acts, bypassing the tight monitoring by the State Bank of Vietnam,” VNExpress quoted the court as saying.
“They had abused state policy and their power to violate the state gold management mechanism, causing instability to the market.”
READ ALSO: Vietnam Jails 30 in Explosive $45m Corruption Scandal Involving Cash Cases
The defendants were ordered to return approximately 640 kilograms of gold to the state.
The case comes just weeks before Vietnam ends SJC’s exclusive monopoly on gold bullion production. Starting October 10, qualified commercial banks and enterprises will be allowed to produce gold bars, according to a recent announcement by the State Bank of Vietnam.
Gold remains a critical store of value in Vietnam, where families and businesses rely heavily on it as a hedge against currency depreciation. Prices in the country typically exceed global market rates due to taxes and market distortions.