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The Star
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Vietnam tycoon seeks to manage her assets from prison, media reports
HANOI: Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan sent a letter from her prison cell asking authorities to reevaluate the wealth of her assets, as she seeks to pay back some of the billions embezzled and avoid the death penalty. The 68-year-old petitioned the steering committee responsible for recovering funds tied to her property empire, asking it to reassess the market price of 726 assets that she claims are undervalued, according to news website Thanh Nien. Lan said the company appointed to evaluate her assets, which includes prime real estate locations in central Ho Chi Minh City, had estimated their worth at around 253.5 trillion dong (US$9.7 billion), which she said was well below market value. She also asked officials to consider incorporating a further 440 assets which are currently excluded from assessment. Lan was sentenced to death last April after being found guilty of embezzling $12.3 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank, Vietnam's largest-ever fraud case. She also faces decades behind bars after being found guilty on charges including money laundering in a second trial. Prosecutors had told the former chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group she must repay an estimated $11 billion to avoid the death penalty. During court proceedings, her lawyers said she has been working to pay back thousands of bondholders and hundreds of millions in stolen bank funds. The real estate mogul's downfall captured global attention due to the severity of the sentence and the vast sums of money involved. She has become the most high-profile case of the ruling Communist Party's corruption crackdown, which has led to the detention of scores of senior officials and business executives. In her request to authorities, Lan also asked the committee to allow her to be involved in the process of asset valuation and handling, with the goal of getting the greatest financial returns for the State. - Bloomberg
South China Morning Post
13-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Vietnam tycoon offers property empire to avoid death penalty in US$27 billion bank fraud
Vietnamese property tycoon trying to avoid a death sentence for multibillion-dollar fraud has promised to turn her property empire into a 'golden goose' to help pay back the assets she embezzled, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Property developer Truong My Lan lost an appeal in December against the death penalty in a case in which she was found guilty of stealing money from Saigon Commercial Bank and fraud amounting to US$27 billion. The appeal court ruled there was no basis to reduce her sentence but said she could still escape the death penalty if she paid back three-quarters of the amount stolen. In a letter sent from jail to a state-controlled committee handling her properties, Lan said her assets have been significantly undervalued, causing potential losses to the state and affecting her rights, her lawyer Giang Hong Thanh said. Businesswoman Truong My Lan attends a trial in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in April 2024. Photo: AFP Lan said the government-appointed company that valued 726 of her assets, several of them real estate projects in prime areas of Vietnam's biggest cities, had estimated their worth at around US$9.7 billion.
CNA
13-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Vietnam death row tycoon promises to turn properties into 'golden goose'
HANOI: A Vietnamese property tycoon trying to avoid a death sentence for multi-billion-dollar fraud has promised to turn her property empire into a "golden goose" to help pay back the assets she embezzled, her lawyer said on Tuesday (May 13). Property developer Truong My Lan lost an appeal in December against the death penalty in a case in which she was found guilty of stealing money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and fraud amounting to US$27 billion. The appeal court ruled there was no basis to reduce her sentence but said she could still escape the death penalty if she paid back three-quarters of the amount stolen. In a letter sent from jail to a state-controlled committee handling her properties, Lan said her assets have been significantly undervalued, causing potential losses to the state and affecting her rights, her lawyer Giang Hong Thanh told AFP. Lan said the government-appointed company that valued 726 of her assets, several of them real estate projects in prime areas of Vietnam's biggest cities, had estimated their worth at around US$9.7 billion. But Lan argued in the wake of new land price guidelines issued by authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, where most of the projects are situated, their value had likely increased by 3 to 5 times. She added that if her other 440 assets were valued, the state could collect another US$7.7 billion at least. "I believe that with my 30-year experience in the real estate business and my thorough legal understanding ... I could turn most of the assets into a golden goose so that the state can recover the costs," Lan wrote in her letter, pleading for authorities to allow her involvement. Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings in SCB lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims. In a second appeal trial in April this year, Lan's life sentence in a separate US$17-billion money laundering case was cut to 30 years.
CBS News
21-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Tycoon facing death penalty has her jail term cut to 30 years in $17 billion Vietnam money laundering case
A Vietnamese property tycoon who was jailed for life in a $17 billion money laundering case had her sentence cut to 30 years on appeal on Monday after she claimed what happened was "an accident." Property developer Truong My Lan had already lost a challenge against the death penalty in a separate case in which she was found guilty in April last year of stealing money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and fraud amounting to $27 billion. The appeal court ruled there was no basis to reduce her sentence but said she could still escape the death penalty if she returned three-quarters of the stolen assets. That means she could still avoid execution if she returns $9 billion, or three-quarters of the $12 billion she embezzled, the BBC reported . Four months later, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled on Monday that a life sentence she was handed for three crimes during a second trial in October would be reduced to 30 years. "Lan played the major role... (but) we also take into consideration the amount of money that Lan has spent on overcoming the consequences," judge Pham Cong Muoi said following discussions during the appeal about how her assets may be used to compensate victims of her crimes. Prosecutors said she had repaid a quarter of the $1.2 billion she defrauded from thousands of bond investors. "The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount," lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC before her appeal was rejected. "However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can create the most favorable conditions for her to continue making compensation." Lan's husband Chu Lap Co did not appeal, but the judging panel concluded that his two-year sentence should be cut by half after he paid back the $1.2 million he was found to have laundered. In her final words before the court last week, Lan described what happened as "an accident." "Since being jailed, I have tried my best... to seek the best solutions to (deal with my) projects and properties," she was quoted as saying by state media. "Please acknowledge my effort," she added. The 68-year-old was found guilty in October of laundering $17.7 billion and illegal cross-border trafficking of $4.5 billion. She was also found guilty of bond fraud. The court determined during the trial that Lan was "the mastermind, committed the crime with sophisticated methods, many times, causing especially serious consequences." During her first trial in April 2024, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion but prosecutors said the damages caused by the scam totaled $27 billion -- equivalent to around six percent of Vietnam's 2023 GDP. Lan owned just five percent of shares in SCB on paper but the court concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90 percent through family, friends and staff. Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, prompting rare protests in the communist nation. During her trial, Lan was sometimes defiant, but in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she was more contrite, the BBC reported . She said she was ashamed to have been such a drain on the state, and that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken. "I feel pained due to the waste of national resources," Lan said in November, adding she felt "very embarrassed to be charged with this crime."
Business Times
21-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Life sentence cut to 30 years in prison for Vietnam's death-row property mogul Truong My Lan
[HO CHI MINH CITY] Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan on Monday (Apr 21) won an appeal against her life sentence for charges including laundering 445.75 trillion dong (S$22.6 billion) and misappropriating 30 trillion dong from investors through fraudulent bond issuances, state media reported. At the conclusion of the roughly monthlong hearing as part of Vietnam's largest fraud case on record, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City decided to reduce her penalty to 30 years in prison. The 68-year-old property tycoon remains on death row for a separate charge of embezzlement, which led to losses totalling 677 trillion dong at Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over the course of a decade – equivalent to about 6 per cent of Vietnam's gross domestic product in 2022. She was also found guilty of bribing government officials, violating banking regulations, and illegally transferring US$4.5 billion across borders. 'The consequences were unexpected and an accident,' Lan said during the hearing last week. 'I hope the jury will acknowledge my efforts to consider and evaluate the overall case humanely.' After the first appeal trial last December, the jury said that if the convicted felon returns three-fourths of the losses she caused during the execution of the verdict, a commutation from the death sentence to life in prison could be considered according to the law. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Lan, back then, asked for a 'special mechanism' for the case and permission to participate in the handling of assets, so that she could remedy the repercussions and pay back the money. On Apr 9, Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh established the Interdisciplinary Steering Committee for organising the execution of judgments and the recovery of assets misappropriated in the Van Thinh Phat case. This is the most high-profile case in Vietnam's anti-corruption drive in recent years, which has already seen numerous high-ranking politicians and business leaders detained. Junk bonds Lan and her accomplices were found to have misappropriated funds from nearly 36,000 investors who bought bonds issued and sold illegally through companies under Lan's property empire Van Thinh Phat. Investors were mostly depositors at SCB and were courted by the bank to become secondary buyers of these junk notes in 25 batches between 2018 and 2020. After the fraud, Lan and the other defendants withdrew the scammed money, concealed the cash flow, and utilised the capital for her personal purposes that were not in accordance with the announced issuance plans. According to the case filings, the bond fraud was uncovered as part of Lan's sophisticated effort to raise funds to address the financial troubles of SCB, in which she held the majority stake. In 2018, SCB was under strict supervision by the authority and therefore faced difficulties in granting credit to companies in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem. Meanwhile, Lan told the court during the trial that the severe consequences of the case occurred only after her arrest in October 2022. She believed that SCB was still operating normally before that, without any losses or illiquidity, and was even in the process of preparing for restructuring. Trillions of dong recovered During the latest proceedings, the Judgment Enforcement Agency informed that more than 8.6 trillion dong had been recovered from the first phase of the case, with the possibility of collecting an additional 15 trillion dong in the near future. It is therefore highly possible for Lan to meet her obligations as the recovered money will be utilised to compensate bondholders first. Lan said last week that her legal team and family have been working with a group of foreign partners to prepare resources and forge plans to repay her debts to investors and SCB within two to five years. She previously said in a separate trial last year that Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan of Berjaya Corporation and other foreign investors had expressed interest in buying her key assets. However, as she and her family members, including her Hong Kong husband Eric Chu, face charges of money laundering and illegally transferring funds across borders, Lan said that many friends and foreign partners were 'afraid to send money to assist', leading to the prolonged procedures. Even though Chu was not among the 27 other individuals who filed appeals against their sentences in the second trial, he had his penalty cut by one year, bringing his total time in jail to eight years. Lan's niece Truong Hue Van also saw her sentence reduced by two years, resulting in 16 years behind bars.
