Court to hear $12M dispute between divorced businessman, supermodel

Model Ngoc Thuy. Photo by Tien Nguyen

On August 18, the HCMC People’s Court will decide if Nguyen Duc An, 61, can get back assets worth VND288 billion (US$12 million) he bought "with his own money" from Ngoc Thuy, 43.

It has reportedly taken the court 13 years to hear the case since it "had to obtain documents related to the properties in dispute."

The assets include stocks, cars and dozens of apartments, villas and lands in HCMC and the coastal city of Phan Thiet believed to be registered in Thuy’s mother Truong Thi Be’s name.

An and Thuy got married in September 2006 after knowing each other for just a week. They divorced in March 2008.

An filed a suit claiming Thuy had not returned properties he had bought with "money he earned before marriage."

As a foreigner he "had to register the properties in Thuy’s name."

The Superior Court of California in his native U.S. had ruled that Thuy had to return the properties to him as they "were purchased with his money [and not related to Thuy]," he had submitted to the HCMC court.

He said his children would be "entitled to own the properties" if Thuy returned them.

But Thuy had said in a 2014 interview with VnExpress that she and An did not sign a prenuptial agreement on properties acquired during their marriage, and so they belonged to both of them.

Thuy was once a famous supermodel and actress dubbed the "Marilyn Monroe of Vietnam."

She retired when she married An.

In 2016 she remarried a lawyer named Truong.