Vietnamese tycoon sentenced to death for $12 billion fraud faces money laundering charge

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 1 minute read

Vietnamese tycoon sentenced to death for $12 billion fraud faces money laundering charge

Vietnamese police seek to pursue real estate tycoon Truong Mon Lan for alleged money laundering nearly two months after he was sentenced to death in a $12 billion fraud case, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Police said Lan, along with 33 others, are expected to be prosecuted for asset embezzlement, money laundering and illegal cross-border transportation of currencies linked to real estate company Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group and Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB, the newspaper reported, citing information from the Ministry of Public Security.

A statement posted on the Ministry of Public Security's website detailed the charges but did not provide Lan's name.

Police accuse Lan and his accomplices of illegally transporting about $4.5 billion across the border over 10 years starting in October 2012, the VnExpress news site reported. In addition, they are accused by investigators of laundering 445.75 trillion dong ($17.5 billion) in misappropriated SCB assets and bond issues, according to the report.

02:09

Vietnamese real estate tycoon sentenced to death for $12.5 billion fraud

Lan served as chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings and prosecutors said she illegally controlled more than 90 percent of SCB by paying 27 individuals and entities to acquire stakes in the institution. The October 2022 arrest of Lan, 67, led to a bank run on SCB. The central bank eventually took over the institution.

Lan is appealing the death sentence handed down to her in April after she was found guilty of bribing officials, violating bank lending rules and embezzlement. Fifty other defendants involved in the case also appealed for sentence reductions.