A Vietnamese property tycoon already sentenced to death for financial fraud went on trial on Thursday on additional money laundering charges, Asian media reported.
Truong My Lan, the 67-year-old chairman of Real Estate Company Van Thinh Phat (VTP), was accused in April of fraud worth $12.5 billion: nearly 3 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2022.
Between 2012 and 2022, it controlled the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) through dozens of front men, funnelling the funds through thousands of “ghost companies” and bribing government officials, the Associated Press specifies. According to the prosecution’s version, from early 2018 to October 2022, when the State provided financial assistance to SCB, Lan embezzled large sums while giving illegal loans to shell companies.
The scale of Lan’s trial shocked the nation: the total weight of documentation in the case was about 6 tonnes, there were more than 90 people on trial as defendants, and the court heard more than 1,000 witnesses. VTP was one of Vietnam’s wealthiest real estate firms, undertaking various projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping malls. In doing so, Vietnam has been trying to position itself as an ideal home for foreign enterprises trying to reshape their supply chains in Southeast Asia.
According to state media, Lan is now charged with obtaining property by fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers.
What are the new charges?
Lan raised $1.2 billion from 36,000 investors by illegally issuing bonds through four companies, police said in a statement released ahead of the trial. The investigation uncovered 21 companies controlled by VTP that illegally transferred more than $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022.
The Vietnamese billionaire is also accused of laundering $18 billion in fraudulently obtained funds.
There are 33 other defendants in the case, which is expected to last a month. Lan and other defendants arrived at the court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday in a convoy of police vans. More than a dozen fraud victims waited outside the courthouse, demanding to be allowed into the hearing.
Lan is one of several high-ranking businessmen and government officials jailed after a years-long anti-corruption campaign dubbed “Blazing Furnace” in the communist country.
