This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A Vietnamese property tycoon has been sentenced to death in one of the world’s biggest-ever fraud cases, with total damages estimated at a staggering A$41.3 billion.
Three hand-picked jurors and two judges found 67-year-old Truong My Lan, chair of developer Van Thinh Phat, guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) from 2012 to 2022, made possible through countless “ghost” companies and bribes to government officials.
At the end of the five-week trial in Ho Chi Minh city, Lan was also ordered to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.
“The defendant’s actions not only violate the property management rights of individuals but also pushed SCB into a state of special control, eroding people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” the verdict read.
She denied the charges of embezzlement and bribery.
Her niece, Truong Hue Van, who is the CEO of Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for her own role in the fraud. State media said there were 84 others tried alongside Lan, with sentences ranging from three years’ probation to life imprisonment. A former central official was among those sentenced for life, for having received $7.6 million in bribes.
The trial is the biggest of the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign that has been led by Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong since 2016. The campaign has claimed the scalp of two presidents – former president Vo Van Thuong resigned in March – and two deputy prime ministers, while hundreds of officials have been disciplined or jailed.
Truong My Lan started as a cosmetics market stall vendor in the 1980s before she and her family established Van Thinh Phat in 1992. The company became one of the country’s wealthiest real estate firms, accumulating a portfolio of hotels, offices, high-end residential buildings, shopping centres, restaurants and hotels, taking advantage of Vietnam’s move to become a more market-oriented economy.
In 2011 she was able to arrange the merger of three struggling banks into Saigon Commercial Bank.
Individuals are allowed to only hold up to 5% of shares in any bank. Prosecutors alleged that Truong My Lan, through the shell companies, bribes, and staff acting as her proxies, owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial Bank.
They accused her of appointing her own people as managers at the Bank, and orchestrating the approval of loans to her network of shell companies.
Prosecutors also alleged that over three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong in cash and have it stored it in her basement.