Truong My Lan offers HCMC ‘mega project’ to compensate defrauded bond buyers

Lan, who is accused of masterminding a fraudulent bond issuance scheme in 2018 that resulted in over 35,800 investors losing VND30 trillion (US$1.2 billion), listed a number of projects she was willing to offer as compensation in court Tuesday.

She denied all culpability, but admitted to allowing the Saigon Commercial Bank management to issue the bonds through four of her companies.

"I regret letting the bank use those companies to issue the bonds, which resulted in thousands of people losing their money," she said, adding she wanted to take responsibility for the consequences.

Lan said that the value of the assets she has offered for compensation has totaled VND40 trillion, but the victims have yet to receive any money.

She is now willing to put up more projects at a discount to raise more money for paying compensation, she said.

One of them is Amigo, a 11,000-square-meter project where land acquisition has been going on for 30 years and is now close to completion, she said.

Located on Nguyen Hue Road in the heart of HCMC, the project, when completed, would gain international attention, she claimed.

She said she recently sold a building to state-owned Vietcombank at a 50% discount at VND2 trillion.

She also wants to sell a project in Binh Chanh District for VND20 trillion, which, along with 65 other assets, she had earlier loaned to SCB and now wants back.

She said a building she owns in Hanoi is worth $1 billion, but a prospective buyer is now offering $330 million for it. The building carries a debt of $250 million.

Lan is in court on charges of fraudulent appropriation of assets through the issuance of bonds, money laundering and illegal trans-border movement of money.

Earlier this year she was sentenced to death for embezzling money from the SCB between 2012 and 2022.

She and her accomplices owe VND677 trillion to the bank they had obtained through 1,300 different loans.

The court also found her guilty of bribery and violating banking regulations. She has appealed the death sentence.