Source: AFP
A high-profile Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to death Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with $27 billion in damages.
Truong My Lan, chairman of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade in a case that has stunned the nation.
Eighty-five others, including Lan’s husband, niece and several SCB executives, were also convicted in court in the southern commercial center of Ho Chi Minh City.
Who is Truong My Lan?
Lan was born in 1956 in Ho Chi Minh City and her mother was a market trader who sold cosmetics, according to state media.
He founded Van Thinh Phat in 1992 and went on to buy high-end hotels, restaurants and luxury apartments, as well as investing in financial services. Many of its real estate projects are located in prime locations in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
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Investigators said there were more than 1,000 businesses in the “Van Thinh Phat” ecosystem, including a group of “ghost companies” and a network of overseas interests.
Lan met her husband Eric Chu Nap Kee in the early 1990s when he was looking for investment opportunities, state media reported. The Hong Kong billionaire was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison.
How did he steal so much?
Lan was found guilty of three counts: bribery, breach of banking regulations and embezzlement.
Between 2012 and 2022, he stole $12.5 billion from SCB by creating fake loan applications to withdraw money from the bank, in which he owned 90 percent.
She ordered SCB officers to transfer the money to shell companies and then transferred or withdrew it as cash to cover up her wrongdoing, judges said, according to state media.
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Between February 2019 and September 2022, her driver transported $4.4 billion in cash from SCB’s headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City to her nearby home and headquarters in Van Thinh Phat.
He also took advantage of a government plan to restructure SCB to use the bank as a cash cow after two lenders merged with it, the judges said.
Police have identified more than 40,000 victims of the scam, all SCB bondholders.
Former employees at the State Bank of Vietnam — the central bank — were bribed with millions of dollars to cover up SCB’s wrongdoing and poor financial performance.
Do Thi Nhan, the former head of the central bank’s inspection team, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting $5.2 million in cash given to her in three Styrofoam boxes.
How was it exposed?
Lan and the others were arrested as part of the country’s “burning furnace” graft crackdown that has swept up many corrupt officials and members of the country’s business elite.
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The sweep was carried out by powerful Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and more than 4,400 people have been charged in more than 1,700 bribery cases since 2021.
But the scale of Thursday’s trial was unprecedented. The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes and involved 200 defense lawyers.
Cameras inside the court — which are not always allowed in Vietnam — showed Lan fidgeting and looking anxious before the verdict, while many of her co-defendants sat with their heads bowed.
But the corruption crackdown has hit Vietnam’s economy and analysts say some foreign investors have been spooked, even as they have widely praised what they see as the campaign’s aim to improve the rule of law.
Trong is still urging the crackdown to be accelerated.
Source: AFP