An inquiry has revealed that Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of the now-discredited real estate firm Van Thinh Phat, orchestrated the withdrawal of $4.5 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a span of three years for purposes that remain unclear. The staggering amount, which includes VND108 trillion (approximately $4.48 billion) and an additional $14.7 million, corresponds to the total value of transactions made by Lan at SCB from February 2019 to September 2022. This information came to light through the testimonies of Lan’s driver, Bui Van Dung, and her assistant, Tran Thi Hoang Uyen, who disclosed these figures to the Ministry of Public Security’s investigators.
The police have pinpointed Lan as the central figure who manipulated the bank and a web of thousands of companies to secure loans at will. Lan would instruct SCB executives to release funds to her in the form of loans, which were often granted without the completion of standard documentation. Dung would then deliver the cash to Lan’s residence in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3 or to the Van Thinh Phat offices in District 1. The cash was then moved to various locations as directed by Lan, with Dung or Uyen handling the transport without keeping any transaction records. The final destination of the funds is still unknown.
At one point over the past decade, Lan held a commanding 91.5% stake in SCB, but her shares were always registered under the names of various individuals, allowing her to maintain control inconspicuously.
In a calculated strategy to avoid detection while securing loans, Lan registered the loans under the names of 875 different companies and individuals. These proxies have informed the police that they signed the documents at Lan’s behest and never actually received any funds. They were unaware of the substantial debts accrued in their names until they were interviewed by investigators.
A total of 1,284 loans were taken out in the names of these third parties, and Lan employed various forms of collateral to secure them. In some instances, she grossly inflated the value of these collaterals to obtain larger loans. For example, she overvalued property units at Saigon Peninsula in District 7, using them as collateral for a value of VND584.4 trillion, whereas their actual worth was estimated to be around VND22 trillion, a mere 3.7% of the claimed amount.
Moreover, Lan engaged in the practice of swapping collateral for new loans, sometimes repeating the process up to 12 times. At the time of the investigation, the actual value of the collaterals used was VND108 trillion, a figure significantly lower than the VND487 trillion recorded in the books.
The illegal financial activities orchestrated by Lan and her associates have reportedly resulted in a loss of VND500 trillion for SCB. Following a bank run in October 2022, the central bank placed SCB under special supervision to mitigate the potential fallout on the bank itself and the broader financial sector.
Recently, the Ministry of Public Security proposed charging Lan with multiple offenses, including bribery, banking regulation violations, and embezzlement. Alongside Lan, 85 other individuals were recommended for prosecution for similar crimes and for misappropriating property through abuse of power.
Lan’s arrest in October of the previous year stemmed from allegations of fraud connected to the issuance and trading of bonds valued at several trillion dong (with VND1 trillion equating to roughly $41.87 million).
