The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced one of Vietnam's wealthiest women, 67-year-old Truong My Lan, and her 85 accomplices.
According to zakon.kz, Truong My Lan is the chairwoman of the major company Van Thinh Phat Group, one of the wealthiest real estate firms in Vietnam.
The court sentenced the businesswoman to death for embezzlement of assets. She was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for "violating banking regulations and other activities related to banking," and a further 20 years for "bribery." The overall punishment is the death penalty.
According to the verdict, Truong My Lan was also a shareholder of Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), where she appointed "her own" people to leadership positions. With their help, she used the bank for deposits and capital from other sources, then siphoned money out through fictitious loan agreements.
According to the charges, from 2012 to 2022, SCB issued Lan's group more than 2,500 loans totalling approximately 1,066,000 billion dong (19.09 trillion tenge). By 2022, the defendants had nearly 1,300 loans, with outstanding debt to SCB exceeding 677 trillion dong (12 trillion tenge).
To conceal the crime, the woman instructed her people to bribe officials and leaders of the Agency for Banking Supervision and Inspection, as well as leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City state bank. It is reported that she paid the largest bribe in Vietnamese history to officials - $5.2 million (approximately 2.3 billion tenge).
In addition to Truong My Lan, the court also sentenced her husband, Lan Chu Lap Co. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison for "Violating lending regulations for business activities." Her niece, Truong Hue Van, was sentenced to 17 years for "Embezzlement of property."
The trial of Truong My Lan has become one of the largest legal proceedings in Vietnam's history. The case files filled 104 boxes with a total weight of 6 tonnes. Incidentally, a death sentence for a woman for financial crimes is also a rarity in Vietnam.