The Vietnam Supreme Procuracy issued an indictment against Truong My Lan, Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group, along with 85 alleged accomplices in the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) embezzlement case. This case is recognized as one of Vietnam’s most significant corruption scandals, with the embezzled funds representing approximately 6% of the nation’s GDP. In this case, authorities raised espionage allegations against China.
Charges and Allegations
Truong My Lan, the chairperson of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was arrested on October 8, 2022, for allegedly embezzling around $12.4 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank. The charges alleged that Lan had illegally issued bonds to raise trillions of dong (tens of millions of dollars) from investors from 2018 to 2019. The Vietnamese government has arrested a total of 85 people, including 24 government officials and associates of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group and SCB.
The indictment accuses Truong My Lan and her co-conspirators of accepting bribes, violating banking regulations, and embezzling a staggering sum of over 304,000 billion dong (US$12.5 billion). From February 2018 to October 2022, Lan orchestrated the creation of nearly 920 fraudulent loan applications to extract these funds from SCB.
Chinese Espionage Allegations And Sudden Deaths
Troung My Lan’s husband, who is Cantonese Chinese and deals in real estate, is reported to be a distant family member of former disgraced Chinese security tsar Zhou Yongkang and maintains strong ties with senior party functionaries in China.
The unnatural deaths of three suspected senior executives from Van Thinh Phat Group during the first few days of October 2022 raised speculation of a Chinese connection in this case, according to The Singapore Post. The Vietnamese authorities assume that Chinese spies have eliminated the three people to save Lan, as they had proof of all her misdoings.
Lan is alleged to have gained substantial control over SCB, owning between 85-91.5% of the bank by October 2022. She reportedly manipulated the bank’s operations, appointing relatives and close associates to pivotal roles and setting up units within SCB to facilitate her schemes.
The accused individuals are said to have colluded with asset validation companies to inflate collateral values, creating fake loan applications to divert funds. They also reportedly devised methods to manipulate money flows, sell bad debts, and influence government officials to cover their tracks.
Fugitives and Compliance
Besides Lan, Truong Hue Van, 34, CEO of Windsor Property Management, Nguyen Phuong Hong, 38, an assistant at Van Thinh Phat, and Ho Buu Phuong, 50, former chairwoman of Tan Viet Securities and former deputy financial director of Van Thinh Phat, were also arrested.
Among the accused are five former SCB leaders now on the run, including former chairman Dinh Van Thanh and former deputy director Chiem Minh Dung. In contrast, 80 defendants have reportedly admitted their violations, aligning with evidence gathered during the investigation.
Recovery Efforts
Lan’s niece, Truong Hue Van, and her husband, Chu Lap, have reportedly returned substantial sums, and former director Do Thi Nhan has partially repaid the bribes she allegedly received.
