| Vạn Thịnh Phát case | |||||
| Date: | – present | ||||
| Also Known As: | Vạn Thịnh Phát Major Case | ||||
| Theme: | Corruption | ||||
| Organizers: | Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption and Negative Phenomena
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| Outcome: |
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| Organisers: | Trương Mỹ Lan | ||||
| Inquiries: |
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| Trial: | People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City | ||||
| Verdict: |
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| Notes: |
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| Partof: | Blazing Furnace | ||||
The Vạn Thịnh Phát case, referred to by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as the Trương Mỹ Lan and accomplices case, is an economic corruption scandal involving the Vạn Thịnh Phát Group joint-stock company. Vạn Thịnh Phát, under the leadership of billionaire Trương Mỹ Lan for over 10 years, defrauded Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB).
The Vạn Thịnh Phát scandal was explosed during the anti-corruption Blazing Furnace campaign initiated by General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. The total damage of the case amounts to (equivalent to US$27billion) through (equivalent to US$44billion) in fraudulent disbursements via SCB loan documents, making it one of the largest economic scandals in Vietnam's history; it surpassed the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad scandal in Malaysia, making it also the largest corruption scandal in Southeast Asia.[2] Many senior officials, including presidents, are involved. A total of 86 people have been charged.[3]
According to the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, the trial of the case will be conducted in two phases, with the first phase closely following the Vạn Thịnh Phát case and focusing on investigation, prosecution, and trial to recover assets; the second phase will be related to corporate bonds. The first phase trial took place from March 5 to April 11, 2024, with the participation of 200 lawyers and 86 defendants, of which 7 were absent. After the trial, Trương Mỹ Lan was sentenced to death in the first instance; 4 accomplices received life sentences and other defendants received sentences ranging from 3 years of suspended sentence to 20 years in prison. Trương Mỹ Lan's husband and niece received jail terms of 9 and 17 years, respectively.[4]
Trương Mỹ Lan, born on October 13, 1956, is a Chinese-descended Vietnamese businesswoman born in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). Before becoming the owner of a major corporation in Vietnam, she sold cosmetics at Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh City, with financial support from her mother.[5] In 1992, she married Hong Kong businessman Chu Lap Co. Together, they founded Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, initially focusing on trade and business, restaurants, and hotels in the aftermath of the Đổi Mới reforms.[6] [7]
In 2007, Vạn Thịnh Phát established two entities: Vạn Thịnh Phát Investment Group and An Dong Investment. After acquiring SCB Bank through shareholding control, SCB became one of the largest commercial banks in Vietnam by asset size. At the same time, Vạn Thịnh Phát became one of the wealthiest real estate companies in Vietnam with a series of projects including high-end residential buildings, offices, hotels, and shopping centers.
The Times Square Investment joint-stock company has frontages on Nguyen Hue Walking Street and the Union Square shopping, which is a hotel complex with four frontages; it was owned by Vạn Thịnh Phát. The Times Square Investment building (26–36, District 1, Nguyen Hue) is chaired by Chu Lap Co. This building is used as collateral for loans at SCB Bank. Building number 19–25 is the headquarters of SCB Bank.[8] Despite owning a large amount of assets, little information about her or her family is known.[9]
Corruption in Vietnam grew during the tenure of Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng.[10] In 2016, the Communist Party of Vietnam began implementing the anti-corruption campaign known as the "Burning Furnace", initiated by General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. The campaign intensified in 2022. The Burning Furnace campaign led to the resignation of many senior government officials, including Vietnamese Presidents Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Võ Văn Thưởng,[11] and started thousands of prosecutions.[12] Economic figures were also affected by this campaign.
In March 2022, Trịnh Văn Quyết, the chairman of the FLC Group and its subsidiary, Bamboo Airways, was arrested for stock market manipulation.[13] Nearly a month later, Đỗ Anh Dũng, the chairman of the Tân Hoàng Minh Group, was arrested for fraud and appropriation of assets.[14] Similarly, in April, the chairman of Tân Hiệp Phát Group, Vietnam's largest private beverage producer, Trần Quý Thanh, was also arrested for embezzlement.[15] During March and April, the chairmen of three major corporations in Vietnam were consecutively arrested for violations. However, there have been many allegations that the campaign is being used for political purposes to vie for internal power, a claim rejected by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[16]
In 1992, Trương Mỹ Lan and her husband Chu Lập Cơ founded Vạn Thịnh Phát Limited Liability Company, operating in the fields of commerce and business, restaurants, and hotels. In 2007, with a charter capital of 6,000 billion VND, Vạn Thịnh Phát began investing in the real estate sector. Subsequently, she established many subsidiaries and affiliated companies with capital amounting to thousands of billions of VND, such as An Đông Investment Joint Stock Company (9,000 billion VND), Times Square Vietnam Investment Joint Stock Company, Saigon Peninsula Group Joint Stock Company (18,000 billion VND), VTP Group Holdings (6,000 billion VND), and VTP Group Holdings (12,800 billion VND).[17] At the end of 2019, Vạn Thịnh Phát Group increased its charter capital to 13,000 billion VND through issuing shares to domestic shareholders.[18] During its development, this Group has built an ecosystem with a scale of more than 1,000 enterprises.[19] The subsidiaries of this Group can be divided into four main categories: Financial institutions groupthis group is considered the most important as it is the source of funds for the entire "Vạn Thịnh Phát ecosystem"; Group of companies operating in Vietnammost companies in this group operate in real estate, restaurants, hotels, etc., with large charter capital to attract investment and hold controlling shares in other subsidiaries; Group of "ghost" companies in Vietnamthese companies use legal entities to invest capital, borrow bank loans, and refinance debts; and Group of overseas companiesthese companies act as "foreign investors" investing in Vietnam and are used to manage Mrs. Lan's family assets abroad.[20]
Among them, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) is one of the companies in the Financial institutions group within this "ecosystem". According to the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions in Vietnam, an individual cannot own more than 5% of the charter capital of a credit institution,[21] Therefore, in 2011, Trương Mỹ Lan used her relatives and close friends to collect 80–90% of the shares of three banks: Đệ Nhất Bank (Ficombank), Vietnam Tin Nghia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TinNghiaBank), and Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB). At that time, Trương Mỹ Lan held 81.43% of SCB's shares under the names of 32 shareholders; 98.74% of TinNghiaBank's shares with 36 shareholders, and 80.46% of Ficombank through 24 shareholders. From January 1, 2012, these three banks were merged into Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), and Trương Mỹ Lan continued to have 73 shareholders hold 85.61% of the shares. By January 1, 2018, the number of shares she held in this bank had reached 91.54%. Mrs. Lan used the bank's operations to raise capital to meet the business needs of the Groups, subsidiaries, and affiliated companies she owned, creating fake loan documents from SCB Bank and embezzling the money for personal use. To carry out this act, Mrs. Lan also bribed many officials in the Vietnamese government.[22] Additionally, Mrs. Lan bribed many appraisal companies such as: Thiên Phú Appraisal Company; MHD Appraisal Company Limited; Tầm Nhìn Mới Appraisal Company Limited; DATC Real Estate Consulting Services Joint Stock Company; EXIM Appraisal Joint Stock Company.[23]
Through the above method, from 2012 to 2022, Trương Mỹ Lan disbursed many fictitious or legally insufficient loans totaling more than 1 million billion VND from SCB Bank. As of October 2022, the total irrecoverable debt had reached 677,000 billion VND, and after deducting secured assets, the damage she caused was 498,000 billion VND. Among these damages, Trương Mỹ Lan is accused by the investigation agency of embezzling SCB's assets worth more than 304,000 billion VND along with 129,000 billion VND in interest and incurred costs. In total, Lan and her accomplices created 2,500 loans at SCB Bank, disbursing 1,066,000 billion VND accounting for 93% of the total loans granted by the bank. Compared to Vietnam's GDP in 2022, this amount is equivalent to 10.7% of the economy. Lan's disbursed amount was even three times the capital for constructing Long Thanh Airport and seven times the capital for constructing 12 North-South Expressway projects.[24] After the loans were disbursed, Lan directed her subordinates to transfer money from the disbursed company to the accounts of non-existent legal entities or individuals. When needed, Lan would transfer money across subsidiaries within the "Vạn Thịnh Phát ecosystem". To withdraw cash externally, Lan instructed employees to falsify documents to legitimize cash withdrawals through SCB Bank and used cars to transport money to her private residence at Sherwood, 127 Pasteur, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, or the headquarters of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group. According to the investigation agency, from February 2019 to September 2022, the amount transported by drivers was 108,000 billion VND along with 14.7 million USD (equivalent to 355 billion VND).[25] During its operations, through SCB Bank, many documents were approved despite not meeting the conditions for transferring money abroad and transferring money from abroad back to Vietnam. Vạn Thịnh Phát Group used 12 companies established and registered in Vietnam and 11 companies established abroad to carry out this process of transferring and receiving money. From 2012 to 2022, a total of 78 money transfer transactions were conducted with a total amount of 1.5 billion US dollars (equivalent to 35,361 billion VND) and 152 transactions received back to Vietnam with a total amount of more than 3 billion US dollars (equivalent to 71,368 billion VND). Thus, the total amount of money transferred and received reached 4.5 billion US dollars (equivalent to more than 106,730 billion VND). The cross-border money transfer operations were assigned by Mrs. Lan to Trịnh Quang Công, Nguyễn Phương Anh, and Chiu Bing Keung Kenneth.[26] [27]
Additionally, in 2018, Mrs. Lan selected four companies, including An Đông Company, Quang Thuận Company, Sunny World Company, and Setra Company, to issue bonds and raise money from the public amidst Vạn Thịnh Phát Group's prolonged difficulties and bad debts. These companies raised a total of 30,800 billion VND through bond sales, then legitimized the cash flow for eight subsidiaries of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group by repurchasing these bonds from the four companies. Sunny World's bond packages were marketed by Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), while the remaining bonds were sold through contracts signed by TVSI Securities Company. The cash flow from bond sales was then transferred to SCB Bank. Specifically, An Đông Company had 30,738 investors purchase bonds totaling 25,300 billion VND, including 24,969 billion VND that could not be repaid; Sunny World Company issued 24 million bonds worth 2,400 billion VND, including 1,600 billion VND that could not be repaid; Quang Thuận Company issued 15 million bonds worth 1,500 billion VND that could not be repaid to 2,649 investors; and Setra Company issued 20 million bonds worth 2,000 billion VND in debt to 2,431 investors. Within two years, Vạn Thịnh Phát Group embezzled 30,000 billion VND from more than 35,000 investors.[28] [29]
After Trương Mỹ Lan was arrested, many people rushed to withdraw money from SCB bank branches and ATMs, causing a cash flow disruption at the bank.[30] [31] Immediately afterward, media outlets quoted SCB Bank reassuring the public that Lan's arrest was related to bond violations at An Đông Company and not connected to SCB Bank.[32] At that time, the State Bank of Vietnam also committed to solutions and policies to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of depositors. They also aimed to maintain stability for SCB Bank and the credit system, urging people to reconsider withdrawing funds prematurely from SCB.[33] [34] On October 15, 2022, the State Bank of Vietnam announced a special control decision for SCB Bank.[35] They also appointed officials from state-owned commercial banks such as Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, and Agribank to participate in the management and operation of SCB Bank. Over a month later, during a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption and Negative Phenomena, General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng requested a focus on inspection, supervision, auditing, investigation, and handling of corruption and economic cases, including Vạn Thịnh Phát.[36] When addressing those who fled, Trọng also stated that "if they flee abroad, they can be extradited" and "if not, they will be tried in absentia."[37]
During the early days of the trial, Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Nguyễn Văn Nên stated, "This is an unprecedented case for Ho Chi Minh City, a major criminal and economic case with a large number of people involved, and the trial is expected to last about 60 days." He confirmed that this is only the first phase of the case, and the second phase will involve many people, with an estimated number of around 30,000.[38] Published in Nhân Dân newspaper, including many corruption and economic cases, the Ministry of Justice has recovered assets worth up to 10 trillion VND. The General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement also requested that if the defendants in the first phase of the trial do not appeal within 15 days, the Ho Chi Minh City civil judgment enforcement agency should take measures and allocate resources to enforce the judgments on individuals.[39] On April 12, 2024, during a discussion involving the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, the economic police force announced that they had recovered approximately 394.4 trillion VND from the Vạn Thịnh Phát case.[40] According to Reuters, the Vietnamese government is said to have requested the State Bank of Vietnam to provide an unprecedented "special loan" of 24 billion USD to SCB Bank from October 2022 to early this month.[41] Earlier, on the morning of March 14, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and Deputy Prime Minister Lê Minh Khái held a conference with various businesses and commercial banks nationwide to manage Vietnam's monetary policy for 2024.[42]
According to the Sài Gòn Giải Phóng newspaper, the second phase of the case highlighted numerous legal loopholes and deficiencies in Vietnam's management of securities, finance, and banking. It also mentioned that the State Securities Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Department (under the Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency), the State Bank, and the Foreign Exchange Management Department (under the State Bank) promptly detected the violations of the Vạn Thịnh Phát ecosystem.[43]
Michael Tatarski, a journalist based in Ho Chi Minh City, stated, "There is no doubt that more scandals and significant arrests are imminent." He mentioned that "an investigation into sand mining activities is underway," and the Vietnamese police are also scrutinizing the renewable energy sector and the Vietnam Electricity Corporation.[44] According to BBC News, "this is the most dramatic trial to date" in General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng's anti-corruption campaign.[45] Le Hong Hiep from the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore stated that the Communist Party of Vietnam aims to influence the free business culture in the South, as by the end of 2016, Hanoi had almost allowed Vietnamese-Chinese mafia forces to run the southern economy. He also suggested that aggressively tackling corruption in Vietnam might slow down the economy because "corruption acts as a lubricant to help the [country's] machinery operate".[45] Meanwhile, Reuters praised this as an "impressive result" in the anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party.[46]
Voice of America reported that this is "the most severe economic case in Vietnam's history" since Tăng Minh Phụng was executed for fraud related to Minh Phụng-EPCO in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.[47] Citing a lawyer from Hanoi, if she can recover most of the lost funds, she might avoid the death penalty. According to The Times of India, this case has shocked not only Vietnam but also the world, as it is an unprecedented move in Vietnam's anti-corruption campaign.[48] Commenting on the verdict handed down by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court to Trương Mỹ Lan, The Guardian stated that it was a severe and unusual sentence for a corruption case.[49] Some observers believe it was fortunate that "the Vietnamese government handled the case without causing much damage to the economy" and suggest that "how to mitigate some of the losses to offset taxpayers' money and return money to SCB's customers" is the big question.[50] [51] [52] According to Al Jazeera, Michael Tatarski, host of the Vietnam Weekly podcast, stated that the financial scale of the case not only extends beyond Vietnam but may be one of the biggest financial scandals in world history, and never before has a corruption case been reported and scrutinized in such detail by Vietnamese state media.[53]
According to Time magazine, Lê Thanh Hải, former Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, and Lê Hoàng Quân, former Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, may be involved in the case after both were disciplined and dismissed by the Central Inspection Commission in March 2020 for violations related to the Thủ Thiêm New Urban Area. The magazine also suggested that both individuals facilitated rapid development for Lan, which contributed to her current downfall.[54] After the Vietnamese government issued a "special loan" to SCB Bank, Reuters reported that Vietnamese authorities are "struggling" to prevent SCB's impact on the economy despite having placed the bank under special supervision 18 months ago.[55]