Currency
Vietnam property tycoon sentenced to death in multi-billion dollar fraud case
NEW DELHI: Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan on Thursday was sentenced to death in a multi-billion dollar fraud case.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was accused of swindling the cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade.
She and dozens of other co-accused faced verdicts in one of the country’s biggest fraud cases involving the embezzlement of 12.5 billion dollars.
Lan and 85 others faced verdicts and sentencing in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City following a five-week trial. The list of co-accused includes former central bankers, ex-government officials and previous SCB executives.
The charges they face include bribery, abuse of power, appropriation and violations of banking law.
However, Lan had denied the allegations and pointed fingers at subordinates.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Lan, a rare move in such cases.
She was among 85 individuals arrested in a nationwide anti-corruption campaign targeting government figures and business leaders in Vietnam. Lan, in her final court statement last week, hinted at suicidal thoughts.
“In my desperation, I thought of death,” she said, according to state media.
“I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment — the banking sector — which I have little knowledge of,” she added.
In an occurrence rarely witnessed in the one-party community state, Hundreds of people began to stage protests in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, after her arrest in October 2022.
A heavy police presence was seen outside the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi on Wednesday, a location that has been a hotspot for protests in the past.
Authorities have identified approximately 42,000 individuals affected by the scandal, causing shock across the Southeast Asian nation.
Lan, the wife of a prominent Hong Kong businessman currently facing trial, stands accused of orchestrating fraudulent loan applications to siphon funds from SCB, a bank where she held a 90 percent stake.
SCB bondholders affected by a scheme are reportedly unable to access their funds since Lan’s arrest, with no repayments made.
Lan is alleged to have misappropriated assets amounting to three percent of Vietnam’s GDP between 2012 and 2022, with over 1,000 properties seized by prosecutors.
A sum of 5.2 million dollars paid as a bribe by Lan and SCB bankers to officials stands as Vietnam’s largest recorded bribe. The scandal has raised concerns about financial violations and corruption within the banking sector.
The woman who was offered the bribe — Do Thi Nhan, the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team — said during the trial the cash was handed to her in Styrofoam boxes by the former CEO of SCB, Vo Tan Van.
More than 4,400 people have been indicted during Vietnam’s corruption crackdown, across more than 1,700 graft cases, since 2021.
(With AFP inputs)
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was accused of swindling the cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade.
She and dozens of other co-accused faced verdicts in one of the country’s biggest fraud cases involving the embezzlement of 12.5 billion dollars.
Lan and 85 others faced verdicts and sentencing in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City following a five-week trial. The list of co-accused includes former central bankers, ex-government officials and previous SCB executives.
The charges they face include bribery, abuse of power, appropriation and violations of banking law.
However, Lan had denied the allegations and pointed fingers at subordinates.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Lan, a rare move in such cases.
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“In my desperation, I thought of death,” she said, according to state media.
“I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment — the banking sector — which I have little knowledge of,” she added.
In an occurrence rarely witnessed in the one-party community state, Hundreds of people began to stage protests in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, after her arrest in October 2022.
A heavy police presence was seen outside the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi on Wednesday, a location that has been a hotspot for protests in the past.
Authorities have identified approximately 42,000 individuals affected by the scandal, causing shock across the Southeast Asian nation.
Lan, the wife of a prominent Hong Kong businessman currently facing trial, stands accused of orchestrating fraudulent loan applications to siphon funds from SCB, a bank where she held a 90 percent stake.
SCB bondholders affected by a scheme are reportedly unable to access their funds since Lan’s arrest, with no repayments made.
Lan is alleged to have misappropriated assets amounting to three percent of Vietnam’s GDP between 2012 and 2022, with over 1,000 properties seized by prosecutors.
A sum of 5.2 million dollars paid as a bribe by Lan and SCB bankers to officials stands as Vietnam’s largest recorded bribe. The scandal has raised concerns about financial violations and corruption within the banking sector.
The woman who was offered the bribe — Do Thi Nhan, the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team — said during the trial the cash was handed to her in Styrofoam boxes by the former CEO of SCB, Vo Tan Van.
More than 4,400 people have been indicted during Vietnam’s corruption crackdown, across more than 1,700 graft cases, since 2021.
(With AFP inputs)
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