05 March 2024
A major property investor in Vietnam, Truong My Lan, is on trial over an accusation of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion. That is nearly 3 percent of the country's 2022 total economic production and the largest financial fraud case on record.
Lan is the 66-year-old head of the property company Van Thinh Phat. The company was one of Vietnam's biggest property companies and its projects include homes, offices, hotels, and business centers.
A government document says she reportedly used "thousands of ghost companies," paid bribes to government officials, and broke banking laws. She is accused of illegally controlling the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank from 2012 to 2022 and using it to steal $12.5 billion, the document adds.
Another 85 people are being charged in the case, including a former State Bank of Vietnam official accused of accepting $5.2 million in bribes. Lan was arrested in October 2022 and could be executed if found guilty.
Officials brought Lan to a Ho Chi Minh City courtroom on Tuesday morning. Her husband Eric Chu Nap-kee, who works in property investment in Hong Kong, was also asked to appear in the case, VN Express reported.
Lan's arrest is part of an ongoing anti-corruption drive that brought thousands of officials and business leaders under investigation. In January 2023, then-President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two top officials resigned for "political responsibility" of corruption dealings during the pandemic.
But observers said the anti-corruption drive has also worsened Vietnam's economic outlook and concerned foreign investors. It came at a time when the Southeast Asian nation has been trying to get businesses to move from China.
Linh Nguyen is the lead researcher for Washington D.C.-based Control Risks. She said it is the size of Lan's alleged fraud that has been surprising.
"More than 3 percent of the GDP is very large," Nguyen said. GDP, or gross domestic product, is how much a country produces in one year. She added that it also raised questions about whether other banks and businesses had "done the done the same (and) just haven't been discovered."
The anti-corruption drive has also resulted in Vietnam's government slowing down. A report from Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute says that public officials are concerned about being investigated and are avoiding their responsibilities.
And Nguyen said that investors in banking, finance, and property investment are also taking a "wait and see" position at the moment.
Last year, local media reported that 1,300 property companies withdrew from the market and developers have been offering price reductions and gold to bring in buyers.
But Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's top politician, said in November that the anti-corruption fight would "continue for the long term."
I'm Gregory Stachel.
Aniruddha Ghosal reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
ghost company – n. a company that exists on paper or in official records but does not have any business operations or physical presence, often used in fraud
fraud – n. the crime of cheating somebody in order to get money or goods illegally
allege – n. the crime of cheating somebody in order to get money or goods illegally