Owner of Vietnam’s largest beverage company Tan Hiep Phat, daughters to stand trial for $42M fraud

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court will hear the case against 71-year-old Thanh, Tran Uyen Phuong, 43, the deputy CEO of Tan Hiep Phat, and Tran Ngoc Bich, 40, a former director, from April 23-25.

They will be represented by their four attorneys in court, where 35 entities related to the case will also appear.

Prosecutors allege that Thanh and his daughters offered loans to certain individuals at a monthly interest rate of 3%. Instead of securing these loans with collateral-based contracts, Thanh coerced the borrowers into signing asset sale contracts to him, valuing the properties well below their market worth.

When borrowers repaid the principal and interest in full, Thanh reportedly reneged on returning the assets, claiming the borrowers had forfeited their repurchase rights due to contract breaches.

He further pressured the borrowers to settle amounts higher than initially agreed upon, refusing to accept payments in smaller increments.

Thanh and his daughters were accused of appropriating VND1.048 trillion from January 2019 to November 2020 through this scheme.

Throughout the investigative process, Thanh and his daughters have consistently refuted these charges.