Truong My Lan's business partner seeks to pay half of $113M ordered by court

It is seeking to pay only half of the VND2.88 trillion (US$113 million) judges ordered it to pay, citing an earlier judgment by the Vietnam International Arbitration Center.

The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City last month sentenced Lan to death for embezzlement and ordered her to compensate the losses her company and associates had caused Saigon Commercial Bank over a decade.

As part of the verdict, it required all businesses that had received monies from Lan to turn them in to authorities to pay the compensation.

They include Quoc Cuong Gia Lai, based in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

The company had received VND2.88 trillion from Sunny Island, a subsidiary of Lan’s company Van Thinh Phat, for a 90-hectare housing project in HCMC in 2017.

It was 20% of the total amount Sunny Island was supposed to pay, but the two companies had a disagreement over clearing the land and took the matter to the Vietnam International Arbitration Center.

Sunny Island demanded a full refund, but the arbitrators ruled that since it had failed to honor its payment commitments it would forfeit 50%.

Quoc Cuong Gia Lai has told the People’s Court of HCMC in its appeal that it is only required to pay VND1.44 trillion.

Quoc Cuong Gia Lai also requested the court to order Lan to return title deeds to six land plots she had borrowed from it.

The court had ruled last month that between 2012 and 2022 Lan and her accomplices obtained 2,500 loans and caused losses of VND677 trillion to the bank.

She has appealed the death sentence.