$40M confiscated in Van Thinh Phat chairwoman's scam

By Quoc Thang November 21, 2023 | 01:35 am PT

Saigon One Tower in HCMC's District 1 is among Van Thinh Phat-related assets. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung

The police have confiscated around $40 million in cash, frozen VND2 trillion (US$82.71 million) and made a record of 1,200 property units related to Truong My Lan, chairwoman of disgraced property developer Van Thinh Phat.

The Ministry of Public Security has confiscated VND590 billion and $15 million in cash possessed by Lan, and her accomplice at SCB, the bank she used to allegedly take depositors’ money over 10 years.

Over 1,230 property units related to Lan have been recorded, along with hundreds of millions of shares of individuals who owned on Lan’s behalf.

The police have made a record on seven property units of Nguyen Cao Tri, a business partner who has allegedly appropriated $40 million of Lan after she was arrested last October for alleged fraud related to issuance and trading of bonds worth trillions of dong (VND1 trillion = $41.87 million). Tri's family has voluntarily submitted VND1 trillion to the police.

Lan is being recommended to be charged with bribery, embezzlement and violating banking regulations for allegedly taking VND1 quadrillion ($44 billion) out of SCB from 2012 to 2022 in one of the biggest financial crimes ever recorded. The sum was equivalent to one-fifth of Vietnam’s GDP as of the end of September.

Lan has been accused of manipulating lender SCB in order to appropriate VND304 trillion ($12.53 billion) from its customers.