Who is Truong My Lan? The Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for fraud
Vietnamese billionaire Truong My Lan has been sentenced to death for committing $44 billion bank fraud. Learn more about the 67-year-old property developer.
A Vietnamese court has sentenced real estate developer and billionaire Truong My Lan to death after finding her guilty of bribery, embezzlement, and violations of banking rules.
She was accused of making fake loan applications worth $44 billion to get money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in which she had a 90% stake.
A panel of three jurors and two judges found that she swindled money from SCB for over 10 years, causing a bank run. Prosecutors now say total damages say have climbed to $27 billion, and the court decreed that Lan pay almost the whole sum in compensation.
The tycoon continues to protest her innocence, and says she did not break the law intentionally, nor did she cause damage to the bank’s depositors or the state.
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Who is Truong My Lan? The Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for fraud
The 67-year-old founded and chairs the Van Thing Phat (VTP) group, which owns some of Ho Chi Minh’s priciest real estate properties. She is married to Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, who was sentenced to nine years in jail for his role in the crime.
According to the BBC, Lan began working as a market stall vendor selling cosmetics with her mother. She then began to buy property during Vietnam’s period of economic reform, per the media outlet.
Lan owned a host of hotels and restaurants by the 1990s, and by 2011, had gained enough fame and fortune to orchestrate the merger of three small banks into the Saigon Commercial Bank.