Truong My Lan said she was dragged by the fierce economic environment
Tycoon Truong My Lan, president of the Van Thinh Phat real estate group, was sentenced to death in Vietnam after being found guilty of the largest bank fraud in the country’s recent history.
The businesswoman defrauded 12.5 billion dollars (R$63.6 billion), the equivalent of 3% of Vietnam in 2022. During the trial, she declared herself innocent and said she had been deceived by the competitiveness of the financial market.
“I am very angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very ferocious economic environment, the banking sector, which I know little about,” My Lan said, according to state media.
In court the billionaire also declared that she suffered from “suicidal thoughts”: “In my desperation, I thought about death.”
The trial in a Ho Chi Minh court, which ended with the conviction of 85 other people, four of them to life imprisonment, is part of the anti-corruption crusade of the Communist Party, which has governed Vietnam since 1975.
According to the investigation, Lan used frontmen and employees to take over 91% of Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), an institution in which he officially held no role and held only 4% of the shares. Between 2012 and 2022, the businesswoman allegedly diverted large sums of money through loans to shell companies. The actions were covered up through the payment of bribes.
According to the Public Prosecutor, Lan granted 2,500 loans that generated losses for the bank of $27 billion (R$137.3 billion). The businesswoman is accused of crimes of corruption, violation of banking regulations and embezzlement for the benefit of a criminal network.
The court justified the death sentence given the seriousness of the fraud, claiming the impossibility of recovering the losses generated and asking the bank for compensation of 26.9 million dollars (136.8 billion reais). For the judges, the case undermines “the people’s trust in the leadership of the party and in the state”.
Lan’s defense denies the charges and has announced that it will appeal the decision. If the sentence is confirmed in the next levels of judgement, she could be one of the few women to pay with her life for a white collar crime.
The list of those sentenced includes a former Central Bank employee, Do Thi Nhan, sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting a bribe of $5.2 million (R$26.4 million), and a niece and husband of the woman businessman, the Chinese billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, sentenced respectively to 17 and 9 years in prison.
Anti-corruption campaign
Lan, who made his fortune in real estate, has had hundreds of properties seized by authorities. She was arrested in October 2022, during an anti-corruption campaign in Vietnam which has since intensified and led to the denunciation of over 4,400 people and the resignation, in March this year, of the former president Vo Van Thuong.
Lan’s trial has received wide coverage in the Vietnamese press, which has been severely censored by the authorities, who have made it known that they intend to publicize the case to set an example.
The scale of the fraud has stunned observers, who question whether other banks and institutions may have made mistakes similar to those of Saigon Commercial Bank, and has shaken the real estate industry.
*With information from Deutsche Welle
Source: Terra
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