Truong My Lan stole the equivalent of 4.69% of Vietnam’s GDP in a decade-long embezzlement scheme.
Real estate developer Truong My Lan has been sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court for her role in Southeast Asia’s largest ever embezzlement scheme.
The verdict was handed down by a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday after a month-long trial. The court found the 67-year-old guilty of bribery, the violation of banking regulations, and embezzlement, with the latter charge carrying the death penalty due to the amount of money stolen by Lan.
Upon hearing the verdict, the 67-year-old defendant “staggered and was supported by the police,” state news outlet VnExpress reported.
As chairwoman of the real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group (VTP), Lan embezzled over 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) from Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which she effectively controlled using a web of allies and shell corporations. After taking control of the bank in 2012, Lan and her subordinates used thousands of fraudulent loan applications and created phoney withdrawal records to siphon the funds from SCB to her own companies.
Counting interest accrued on the fraudulent loans, the scam caused damages of roughly 498 trillion dong ($20 billion), or about 4.69% of Vietnam’s GDP.
Lan used some of these funds to bribe government officials to ignore her crimes. One of these officials, a senior central bank inspector who was paid $5.2 million to overlook the “many serious violations” taking place at SCB, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, VnExpress reported.
A total of 86 people were tried for involvement in Lan’s scheme, with four receiving life sentences and the rest handed jail terms of up to 20 years.
As details of the scheme came to light following Lan’s arrest in October 2022, three prominent SCB officials committed suicide, sparking a bank run.
“Truong My Lan did not admit to the crime, was stubborn, blamed her subordinates and didn’t show remorse,” prosecutors argued last month. “The defendant’s actions caused extremely serious and irreparable consequences, so Truong My Lan should be permanently removed from society,” the Vietnam+ newspaper reported at the time.
While the court ordered Lan to return the embezzled funds, prosecutors admitted that much of the cash will never be recovered.
Lan’s high-profile trial was part of a wider anti-corruption drive implemented since 2016 by Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong. The campaign, nicknamed ‘Blazing Furnace’, has seen two presidents, two deputy prime ministers, and thousands of other government officials and business executives sacked, fined, or jailed for graft.
Spring cleaning. I wish the corrupt west would do the same as we are sooo ” overpopulated” !!!
Good to see someone dealing with high end corruption. Long over due here in NZ, especially in govt.
Whats with the stupid face nappies?
Why is the Serious Fraud Office not looking into the fact that politicians and their cronies have accumulated MILLIONS with their remuneration as public servants and ‘consultants’?
Why is there no investigation?
How can creatures like Jabcinda be suddenly worth so much? Book deals? Paintings? Family members suddenly rolling in wealth?
What about deals under the table? Where are the kick-backs?
Just a little help on how to find what the court penalties for serious fraud is in NZ. The link at the bottom is to the SFO. There are 4 options. Open, investigation, prosecution and closed.
The closed link has the penalties.
Note. The SFO only publish on this site for 12 months after the trial.
There are prison sentences, not guilty verdicts and home detention. There are no death penalties. However, I wonder what the new penalty will be when the NZ government is forced to become a local council under a world authority. As time allows, what modifications will change from what was originally agreed.
We here in NZ may not agree with a world government.
Here’s the thing. A lot if not most want death penalties for mass murder. The irony is the people who have created and promoted the jab, knowingly caused death are likely to be running the world. They will be the decision makers on what will happen to you next.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
https://sfo.govt.nz/media-cases/cases/