Lan was convicted in April 2024 for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations. The scheme, which involved shell companies and fake loan applications, siphoned an estimated $12.5 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022.
All about Truong My Lan
Lan was born in 1956 and started out helping sell cosmetics with her mother, a Chinese businesswoman, in Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to state media outlet Tien Phong.
She and her family established the Van Thinh Phat company in 1992, when Vietnam shed its state-run economy in favor of a more market-oriented one that was open to foreigners. Over the years, VTP grew to become one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms.
Today, the company is linked to some of Ho Chi Minh’s most valuable downtown properties including the glittering 39-story Times Square Saigon, the five-star Windsor Plaza Hotel, the 37-story Capital Place office building, and the five-star Sherwood Residence hotel where Lan lived until her arrest.
Lan met her husband, Hong Kong investor Eric Chu Nap-kee, in 1992. They have two daughters.
How Lan defrauded the bank
According to prosecutors, Lan secretly controlled SCB and used it to orchestrate the fraud, which involved bribes of $5.2 million to state officials. Thousands of citizens lost their savings in the scam which could be of about $27 billion, nearly 3% of Vietnam’s 2022 GDP. .It all started in 2011, when Lan got involved in the 2011 merger of the beleaguered Saigon Joint Commercial Bank, or SCB, with two other lenders in a plan coordinated by Vietnam’s central bank.
She allegedly used the bank as her cash cow, illegally controlling it between 2012 to 2022, and using thousands of “ghost companies” in Vietnam and abroad to give loans to herself and her allies, according to government documents.
The loans resulted in losses of $27 billion, state media VN Express reported earlier.
She was accused of paying bribes to government officials – including a former central official who has been sentenced to life in prison for taking $5.2 million in bribes – and violating banking regulations, government documents said.
Eighty-five defendants were involved in the trial, including Lan’s husband and niece. Over six tons of evidence was presented. Lan was sentenced to death in April 2024 for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations.
Vietnamese law allows a reduced sentence to life imprisonment for repaying 75% of stolen funds. Lan is attempting to raise $9 billion to meet this requirement, selling assets and seeking loans. Her lawyers argue the death sentence hinders her ability to effectively liquidate her holdings.