Hanoi. Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death Thursday by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam in the country’s biggest financial fraud case, state media Vietnam Net said.
The 67-year-old businesswoman, president of the real estate firm Van Thinh Phat, was accused of fraud worth $12.5 billion, almost 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022.
Between 2012 and 2022, he illegally controlled the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) and authorized 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 million for the bank, according to the state media VnExpress. The court asked the defendant to compensate the bank with $26.9 million.
Despite some extenuating circumstances – that it was his first crime and his participation in charity work – the court justified the harsh sentence due to the seriousness of the case, stating that Lan led an organized and sophisticated criminal plot that had serious consequences without the possibility of recovering the money, pointed out VnExpress.
Their actions “not only violate the property management rights of individuals and organizations, but also bring the SCB into a situation of special state control, eroding public confidence in the leadership of the Party and the State,” the verdict noted, cited by VnExpress.
Her niece, Truong Hue Van, CEO of Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for helping her aunt.
Emergence of a company
Lan and his family formed the Van Thinh Phat firm in 1992 after Vietnam left behind its state-run economy for a more market-based strategy open to foreigners. She had started her career by helping her mother, a Chinese businesswoman, sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Min City’s oldest market, according to state media Tien Phong.
Van Thinh Phat grew to become one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping malls. That made it a key piece of the country’s financial industry.
Fraud orchestration
In 2011 he orchestrated the merger of SCB with two other lenders in coordination with the central bank of Vietnam.
The court concluded that he had taken advantage of that operation to obtain cash from SCB. The businesswoman owned more than 90 percent of the bank — an allegation she denied — and she authorized thousands of loans to shell companies, according to government documents. That money ended up coming back to the businesswoman, according to court findings reported by VnExpress.
He then bribed officials to cover his tracks, he added.
Anti-corruption campaign
Former central bank official Do Thi Nhan was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for accepting $5.2 million in bribes.
His arrest in October 2022 was among the most notable cases of the anti-corruption campaign in Vietnam, which has intensified since that year. The so-called Operation Burning Furnace has reached the highest levels of Vietnamese politics. Former President Vo Van Thuong resigned from office in March after becoming involved in the campaign.
But Lan’s trial shocked the country. Analysts said the size of the fraud raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had committed similar actions, clouding the country’s economic forecasts and causing nervousness among foreign investors as Vietnam tried to present itself as the ideal location for companies pulling out their chains. China supply.
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– 2024-04-19 13:11:24
