Prosecutors claim Truong My Lan confessed to $4.5B illegal cross-border transactions

By Viet Tuan July 15, 2024 | 06:08 pm PT

Property tycoon Truong My Lan seen at the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City in March 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Property tycoon Truong My Lan has confessed she carried out illegal cross-border transactions worth US$4.5 billion, according to prosecutors.

Between 2012 and 2022, as chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, used 23 companies to send $1.5 billion overseas and receive $3 billion, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the prosecutor’s office, said in an indictment.

Fake contracts were used between the shell companies and their foreign partners.

Lan described them as loans from abroad and her repayments.

The money was sent through Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in which she directly and indirectly held a 91% stake.

Investigators have found that most transactions lacked legal documents, but SCB bosses approved them anyway.

Also charged are Truong Khanh Hoa, the bank’s acting CEO. Between May 2021 and August 2022 he signed off on cross-border transactions worth VND69 trillion ($2.72 billion), all without the required legal permits and certificates.

Some transactions were blocked by the bank’s system due to insufficient information, but Hoang ordered subordinates to manually override them to effect the transfers.

Another CEO, Vo Tan Hoang Van, approved transfers of $516 million between 2018 and 2020. Bui Anh Dung, the bank’s chairman, approved one for $30 million in 2020.

Nguyen Phuong Anh, deputy CEO of another property developer Saigon Peninsula, which was also run by Lan, was tasked with carrying out the illegal transactions for her company and two others.

Between March 2018 and August 2022 he collaborated with SCB executives to effect $91 million worth of illegal transactions.

Two foreigners were involved in the cross-border transactions: Chen Yi Chung, SCB’s acting CEO, and Chiu Bing Keung Kenneth, the legal representative of 11 companies in Vietnam and overseas.

Chen had approved transactions worth $708 million but has left Vietnam.

Kenneth created fake contracts and approved cross-border transactions worth $1.5 billion. He is also living overseas.

Lan has also been charged with fraudulent appropriation of assets and money laundering, with 33 others charged with at least one of those crimes.

Lan received the death penalty in April at another trial, this one for causing a loss of VND677 trillion ($27 billion) to SCB. She has appealed.