2 weeks ago
HANOI: A Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in a $27 billion fraud case could now face prosecution for money laundering, state media said Thursday.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty in April of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.
Police said late Wednesday that they are seeking to prosecute 34 people in the same case, accusing them of fraud, money laundering and cross-border money trafficking.
The police statement did not provide further details, but state media said Lan was among the 34.
Between 2012 and 2022, Lan used nearly 1,300 fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90 percent stake, a court found.
Reports said her driver transported the equivalent of more than $4.4 billion in cash from SCB's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City to her nearby home and Van Thinh Phat's head office.
Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to $27 billion -- a figure equivalent to six percent of the country's 2023 GDP.
The court ordered Lan to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.
Authorities identified around 42,000 victims in the case.
Lan's husband, Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Police said late last year that much of the cash had been invested in real estate projects or trafficked abroad.
Lan's arrest and prosecution came as part of a nationwide crackdown on corruption, which has swept up senior officials and members of the country's business elite in recent years.
In late April, she filed an appeal against the death sentence. Any appeal must take place within 60 days.
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