Vietnamese real estate magnate already sentenced to…

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The second trial began Thursday for Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was sentenced to death in April for financial fraud, state media reported.

The 67-year-old chairman of real estate company Van Thinh Phat has been convicted of orchestrating Vietnam’s largest-ever financial fraud, worth $12.5 billion – nearly 3% of the country’s GDP in 2022. He was also found guilty of illegally controlling a major bank, which allowed it to make loans that led to losses of $27 billion, state media reported.

Her arrest and conviction was one of the highest-profile cases in a crackdown on corruption that has intensified since 2022. The so-called “burning furnace” campaign has also shaken the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics and led to the resignation of a former president implicated in it.

Lan is being tried on new charges of fraudulently appropriating property and money laundering after a police investigation found she raised $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by illegally issuing bonds through four companies, state media reported.

Investigators found 21 companies controlled by Lan’s Van Thinh Phat that illegally smuggled more than $4.5 billion to and from Vietnam between 2012 and 2022.

She is also accused of embezzling $18 billion in funds obtained through fraud.

The case also involves 33 other suspects and is expected to last a month.

Lan and her family founded Van Thing Phat in 1992 after Vietnam shifted from a state-run economy to a more market-oriented approach open to foreign investment. She started by helping her mother, a Chinese entrepreneur, sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to state-run media Tien Phong.

Van Thinh Phat became one of Vietnam’s wealthiest real estate companies, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping malls, making it a major player in the country’s financial sector.

Lan’s first trial shocked many Vietnamese. Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or companies had made similar mistakes, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors nervous at a time when Vietnam is trying to position itself as an ideal home base for companies seeking to diversify their supply chains away from China.