Property tycoon Truong My Lan launders $17.5B: police

Lan, chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, is being recommended by the Ministry of Public Security to be charged with fraudulent appropriation of assets, money laundering and illegal cross-border currency trafficking.

These are fresh charges against Lan, who last month was sentenced to death for causing a loss of VND677 trillion ($27 billion) to Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

The police found that between 2012 and 2022, 21 subsidiaries of Van Thinh Phat transferred $1.5 billion overseas in 78 transactions.

They also received $3 billion in 152 transactions.

These transactions were all made through illegal contracts between these companies and their overseas counterparts.

Lan and her accomplices therefore are recommended to be charged with illegal cross-border currency trafficking.

She and her accomplices are also accused of laundering VND445 trillion embezzled from SCB and from defrauding bond investors.

Between 2018 and 2022, Lan and her accomplices transferred VND415 trillion out of SCB to 483 individuals and 450 entities in order to prevent authorities from tracing the money.

She and her accomplices also issued 25 bond lots through four Van Thinh Phat subsidiaries to steal VND30 trillion from 35,800 victims.

They withdrew the money as cash and used it for various purposes according to Lan’s direction.

In total the police recommended charges against 34 individuals.

Among her accomplices are Nguyen Phuong Anh, deputy general director of Saigon Peninsula Corporation; Trinh Quang Cong, general director of Acumen Management Corporation; and Truong Khanh Hoang, former acting general director of SCB Bank.

They are recommended to be charged with the same three crimes as Lan.

In money laundering, Lan’s accomplices are her husband Eric Chu, chairman of Times Square Investment Jsc; her personal driver Bui Van Dung; her secretary Tran Thi Hoang Uyen; and Tran Xuan Phuong, secretary to Ngo Thanh Nha, chairman of Van Thinh Phat Investment Group Jsc.

To Thi Anh Dao, deputy general director of Van Thinh Phat Investment Group Jsc, is recommended to be charged with illegal cross-border currency trafficking.

This is the second phase of an investigation into Lan and her accomplices for wrongdoing at her company and SCB.

The first phase resulted in Lan being tried in HCMC and getting the death penalty.

She has appealed the sentence.