Billionaire Sentenced To Death In Vietnam's ‘Biggest Fraud’

Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in the country's largest financial fraud case ever, state media Thanh Nien reported.

The 67-year-old chair of Van Thinh Phat, a prominent real estate company, stood accused of a massive fraud scheme totalling $12.5 billion, nearly 3% of Vietnam's GDP in 2022, as reported by news agency AP. 

Allegations against her included illegal control of the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank from 2012 to 2022, channelling funds through numerous ghost companies, and paying bribes to government officials.

This high-profile trial happened within the context of the "Blazing Furnaces" anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong.

Trong, known for his conservative ideology rooted in Marxist theory, initiated the campaign in response to growing public discontent over widespread corruption, viewing it as a threat to the party's authority.

Under Trong's campaign, several high-ranking officials, including two presidents and two deputy prime ministers, have been compelled to resign, with many others facing disciplinary actions or imprisonment. 

Vietnam, often recognized for its fast-growing manufacturing sector as an alternative supply chain to China has seen significant wealth accumulation in the real estate industry.

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Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial, as reported by BBC. 

They accused her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.

Lan has denied the charges and blamed subordinates.

Vietnam's land is officially state-owned, and accessing it often depends on personal connections with state officials. Corruption escalated as the economy grew, and became endemic.