The Vietnamese real estate magnate Truong My Lan, who was sentenced to death earlier this year in the country’s largest corruption case, is now back in court facing additional fraud charges. According to state media, Lan, the chairwoman of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat, appeared in court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, where she is facing new allegations of fraud regarding property acquisitions, money laundering, and illegal international money transfers. The trial is expected to last for one month.
Before the trial began, a police statement revealed that Lan allegedly raised 30 trillion dong (approximately 1.2 billion USD) from nearly 36,000 investors by illegally issuing bonds through four companies. She is also accused of laundering 445 trillion dong (around 18.1 billion USD) and illegally transferring 4.5 billion USD in and out of the country.
The 67-year-old received a death sentence in April after being found guilty of orchestrating Vietnam’s largest financial fraud, which amounted to 12.5 billion USD – nearly three percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 – as well as illegally controlling the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), leading to loans that resulted in losses of 27 billion USD.
Her arrest and conviction are part of the country’s extensive “Blazing Furnace” anti-fraud campaign, which has intensified since 2022 and has led to the arrest of several corporate leaders, public officials, as well as members of the police and armed forces.
Lan and 33 of her alleged accomplices were taken to court in a convoy of police cars, while more than a dozen fraud victims waited outside to gain access to the hearing. Approximately 36,000 individuals have been identified as victims of the SCB fraud, which has shocked the communist nation and prompted rare protests from those who have lost their money.
Hoang Ngoc Diep, a 47-year-old woman, shared that she lost 1.7 trillion dong (around 69,000 USD), savings she had accumulated “through blood, sweat, and tears,” after investing in a SCB bond in 2022. “I had a mental breakdown and fell into depression,” she told AFP before the trial, adding that her family relied on the interest income to support her mentally ill sister and to send her children to school.
Truong My Lan and her family founded Van Thinh Phat in 1992 after Vietnam transitioned from a state-controlled economy to a more market-oriented approach that welcomed foreign investors. She initially assisted her mother, a Chinese entrepreneur, in selling cosmetics at Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to state media outlet Tien Phong.