18-10-2024 (HANOI) Truong My Lan, the embattled chairman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, has been handed a life sentence by a Vietnamese court for a series of financial crimes. This verdict comes on the heels of a death sentence imposed on Lan in April for separate charges, underscoring the severity of her alleged misdeeds and the government’s unrelenting stance on corruption.
The court found Lan guilty of obtaining property by fraud, money laundering, and facilitating illegal cross-border money transfers. This latest conviction is part of Vietnam’s sweeping anti-corruption drive, dubbed “Blazing Furnace”, which has seen numerous high-profile business executives and state officials brought to justice.
According to police statements, Lan’s companies were accused of illicitly raising over 30 trillion dong (approximately £1 billion) through unauthorised bond issuances. Furthermore, she allegedly orchestrated the illegal transfer of $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam and laundered a staggering 445 trillion dong (about £15 billion).
During the trial, as reported by the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, Lan acknowledged many of the charges against her but refuted claims that she had directly overseen the bond issuance. Attempts to reach Lan’s legal representatives for comment were unsuccessful.
This latest sentencing adds to the already severe punishment meted out to Lan in April, when she received a death sentence for embezzlement, bribery, and banking regulation violations in a separate case involving a 304 trillion dong financial fraud – the largest in Vietnam’s history.
The repercussions of Lan’s initial arrest in 2022 were far-reaching, triggering a bank run on the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of Vietnam’s largest private banks, which Lan largely controlled through proxies. The ensuing crisis prompted an unprecedented rescue operation by Vietnam’s central bank, which reportedly injected $24 billion in special loans into SCB to stabilise the situation.
