In Vietnam don't mess with corruption. The Vietnamese Communist Party has sentenced to death the real estate mogul Truong My Lan for his involvement in a case of 12 billion fraud of dollars. Truong, one of the richest women in Vietnam, was found guilty in the most serious financial scandal in the country's history, accused of having orchestrated a vast series of crimes, including embezzlement, corruption and violation of banking rules. In addition to the death sentence, she was also ordered to pay approximately 674 trillion dong as compensation for a total of approximately 27 billion dollars.
“The behavior of Truong My Lan”, owner of the Van Thinh Phat real estate company, which has control of the Saigon commercial bank (scb), "has undermined citizens' trust in the state and in the Communist Party,” she said court jury of Ho Chi Minh, the old capital of South Vietnam. The court justified the death penalty, stating that Lan was the mind of a scheme of criminal conspiracy so sophisticated as to make it impossible to recover the money. The verdict and the government's anti-corruption campaign are shaking Vietnam's banking and real estate markets, affecting the country's economic entanglements.
Truong My Lan: the arrest and charges
Truong My Lan, 67 years old and president of Van Thinh Phat Group, was arrested in October 2022 during an anti-corruption campaign, which began in 2016, and called the “blazing furnace”. Vietnam's anti-corruption campaign has reached the highest political levels, with two presidents and two prime ministers forced to resign in recent years and hundreds of Communist Party officials disciplined or jailed. From 2021 to date, more than 4.400 people have been prosecuted.
The main accusation made against Lan concerned themisappropriation of funds from Saigon Commercial Bank between February 2018 and October 2022, leading to the State Bank of Vietnam taking control of the institution. His arrest caused panic among SCB depositors, resulting in a bank run. Lan, among the country's richest women, allegedly illegally controlled the bank to divert billions in funds through shell companies and bribes to corrupt government officials. The value of the appropriation was estimated at 3% of Vietnam's GDP in 2022, with over 1.000 properties seized. Lan denied the allegations, blaming his collaborators. 42 thousand savers defrauded. 108 trillion dong, equivalent to 4 billion dollars, weighing approximately 2 tons, were found in Lan's cellar. The money had been withdrawn from the bank by his driver in 2019.
In addition to Lan, others have been accused 85 Guests, including her husband, the Hong Kong investor, Eric Chu Nap Kee, of submitting false loan and withdrawal requests to Saigon Bank, of which Lan owned 90%. Most of the defendants received sentences ranging from probation for three years to life in prison.
The story was reconstructed through documents contained in 104 boxes, weighing 4 tons, and with the hearing of 2.770 witnesses.
The death penalty is in force in Vietnam
According to Vietnamese criminal procedure law, Lan has the right to appeal against the verdict of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. Defense lawyers have 15 days to appeal and seek to commute the sentence to life imprisonment. In addition to the death sentence for the embezzlement charge, she was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating banking regulations and attempted bribery and to pay compensation more than double the sums defrauded.
Although the death penalty is not unusual in Vietnam for some serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking and rape, it is applied relatively rarely for economic crimes. The last time it was widely publicized over corruption allegations was in 2013, when two former executives of Vietnam National Shipping Lines were found guilty of embezzlement. The death penalty is common in Vietnam for drug-related crimes but very rare for economic ones.
However, it remains a mystery how Lan built his empire, given that in the 1980s she sold cosmetics in a mobile stand with her mother. The woman, tested by her accusations, declared in recent weeks, playing the emotional card, that she had suicidal thoughts: “In my desperation, I thought about death,” she said, addressing the media. “I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very ferocious economic environment, the banking sector, of which I have little knowledge,” she added.
