The lawsuit filed by Thai Nhat Phuong - wife of the former CEO of ATV Thinh Pham Nho - to demand businessman Huynh Huu Long - Trieu Vy's ex-husband - pay off the huge debt with interest was tried by the Hong Kong High Court (China) on June 30.
The judge ruled that Thai Nhat Phuong lost the lawsuit, meaning that Huynh Huu Long did not have to pay the debt of more than 100 million HKD (about 335 billion VND) filed by Thai Nhat Phuong.
Disagreeing with the ruling, she announced that she would appeal.
Despite losing the lawsuit, she revealed a lot of shocking information in court. Thai Nhat Phuong said that Huynh Huu Long began to fall into debt in 2015, when he had not divorced Trieu Vy.
At that time, he lost 40 million AUD at the Crown casino in Australia. Due to overestimating the risk, the Crown casino refused to continue lending. After that, Thai Nhat Phuong stood as a guarantor, helping Huynh Huu Long borrow an additional 20 million AUD from Suncity Group. In just 2 days, Huynh Huu Long lost 60 million AUD (about 378 million HKD at that time).
However, after 4 years, Huynh Huu Long only repaid the principal debt, but did not mention any interest for Thai Nhat Phuong.
She also said that Huynh Huu Long once gave her 3 guarantee checks with a total value of 180 million HKD, but these checks could not be paid. Therefore, she filed a lawsuit with the court in 2019.
In response, Huynh Huu Long said that Thai Nhat Phuong was just a broker, so he was not obligated to pay the interest.
Meanwhile, Ms. Thai affirmed that because Huynh Huu Long was then burdened with a very large debt, the casino did not want to lend him directly. Therefore, he had to go through her to borrow money and the two sides signed an agreement, which stipulated that she would enjoy an interest rate of 24% (equivalent to about 100 million HKD).
However, Thai Nhat Phuong could not present the contract or related evidence, so her arguments were not convincing enough.
The judge determined that Thai Nhat Phuong was only a casino broker, not taking any risks in the lending process, so her self-reaching out to a private agreement with Huynh Huu Long is not consistent with commercial logic.
Looking back at the case, many people think that the lawsuit has unintentionally revealed part of the hidden corners in the marriage between Trieu Vy and Huynh Huu Long. Because Huynh Huu Long's gambling debt occurred during the period when the two were still living together, Trieu Vy's name was constantly mentioned on forums.
However, Thai Nhat Phuong once expressed sympathy for Trieu Vy and affirmed that he would not prosecute any responsibility for the actress.
At the end of December 2024, after information that Huynh Huu Long was at risk of getting into trouble with the law due to huge debts, Trieu Vy spoke out to confirm the divorce.
She said: "Mr. Huynh Huu Long and I officially ended our marriage many years ago. All matters, statements or news related to him are no longer related to me.
Although the specific divorce date was not disclosed. But in the dossier submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (China) related to share rights at Shunlong Holdings company, Trieu Vy publicly announced the official divorce date as July 23, 2021.
