Vietnamese real estate tycoon, already sentenced to death for fraud, faces trial on new charges

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The second trial for Vietnamese real estate typcoon Truong My Lan — who was sentenced to death for financial fraud in April — started on Thursday, state media reported.

The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was convicted for orchestrating Vietnam’s biggest ever financial fraud case, amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP and for illegally controlling a major bank allowing loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion, state media said.

Her arrest and conviction was one of the highest profile cases in an anti-corruption drive that has intensified since 2022. The so-called blazing furnace campaign has also singed the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics and led to the resignation of a former president who was implicated in it.

Lan is being tried on fresh charges of appropriating property fraudulently and money laundering. According to a police investigation, she raised $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by issuing bonds illegally through four companies, state media reports say.

Investigators found 21 companies controlled by Lan’s Van Thinh Phat that illegally transferred over $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012-2022.

She is also accused of siphoning off $18 billion obtained through fraud.

The case also involves 33 other defendants. It is expected to last a month.

Lan and her family established the Van Thing Phat company in 1992 after Vietnam shifted from a state-run economy to a more market-oriented approach that was open to foreign investors. She started out helping her mother, a Chinese entrepreneur, sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to the state media outlet Tien Phong.

Van Thinh Phat became one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centers. This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry.

Lan’s first trial shocked many Vietnamese. Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam is trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to diversify supply chains away from China.

Hau Dinh And Aniruddha Ghosal, The Associated Press