The former Vietnamese Chinese Zhang Meilan can be regarded as a successful businessman, but when her career became bigger and stronger, she started to "crooked thoughts" and finally became a prisoner who was spurned.
During the special period three years ago, Zhang Meilan donated 2 trillion VND (about 570 million yuan), and many Vietnamese people are grateful for her kindness. But who would have thought that it didn't take long for Zhang Meilan to go to prison.
Not only that, after Zhang Meilan's sudden arrest, Li Ka-shing, who rarely shows up, was also pushed to the forefront for a while because of this incident.
Could it be that Li Ka-shing also has something to do with what Zhang Meilan did?
1. Vietnam's "richest woman" was arrested in the early morning
In 2021, in Vietnam during that special period, the "VTP Group's generous donation" can be said to be a relatively hot news in Vietnam, and Zhang Meilan, the CEO of VTP, who is known as the "richest woman", is even more in the limelight.
However, in the second year, such a "limelight" went in the opposite direction.
At 2 a.m. on October 7, 2022, when many people were sleeping, Zhang Meilan's home was already surrounded by Vietnamese police. With a violent knock on the door, the scenery of the richest Chinese woman in Vietnam came to an abrupt end.
On October 9, the Vietnamese police published in the Saigon Liberation Daily: Zhang Meilan was temporarily detained on suspicion of "fraud and embezzlement of property". As soon as this news came out, the Vietnamese people were shocked.
No one thought that the richest woman, who donated money and materials not long ago to tide over the epidemic, would be involved in "fraud"!
Although it is a "temporary detention", there is no wind and no waves, and if there is no sufficient evidence, the police will not go straight to Zhang Meilan's home at 2 a.m. to directly search for her.
As the Vietnamese police presented relevant evidence in black and white one after another in court, Zhang Meilan's illegal process was gradually revealed.
In addition to Zhang Meilan, chairman of VTP Group Co., Ltd., Ruan Fanghong, assistant of VTP Group, Hu Baofang, former deputy general manager of finance, and Zhang Huiyun, general manager of Windsor Real Estate, all participated.
Since 2018, these people have been "white wolves with empty gloves" by "buying and selling bonds" to illegally raise funds and defraud ordinary people of their hard-earned money.
According to the investigation, Zhang Meilan did not start these actions two years before she was arrested, but seemed to have begun to lay out as early as 2012.
In 2012, Zhang Meilan obtained 85% of the shares of Saigon Commercial Bank through various channels, and later came to the period when the crime intensified, and her shares have reached 91.5%.
Since 2018, as the de facto controlling shareholder, she has been controlling the bank behind the scenes, preparing a total value of about 545 trillion VND for loans.
Not only that, but for those customers who put their money in Saigon Commercial Bank, she even embezzled it privately while the customers were not paying attention, amounting to more than 300 trillion VND.
Directly speaking, the money she embezzled could not even be reached by the five richest people in Vietnam combined.
This is truly shocking.
It stands to reason that since this Zhang Meilan is known as the richest woman in Vietnam, she can donate 570 million yuan during the most difficult epidemic period for countless businesses, and she should not be short of money.
So, what is she embezzling and defrauding so much money for?
2. From "Big Guy" to "Prisoner of the Steps"
Zhang Meilan embezzled and defrauded a huge amount of funds, in fact, if you want to talk about the root cause, it is still that sentence: there are two things in the world that cannot be looked at directly, one is sunlight and the other is human nature.
Zhang Meilan's ancestral home is in Chaoshan, Guangdong, and since the Qing Dynasty, the family has moved to Saigon, Vietnam.
The city of Saigon (later Ho Chi Minh City) was occupied by Western colonizers for a long time. Saigon is not only more westernized, but also developing faster than other Vietnamese regions, making it the most active city in Vietnam's economic market.
In addition, Vietnam is located in the Mekong Delta, with convenient transportation, which is the most suitable for commercial shipping. And Zhang Meilan's ancestors naturally took this into account, so after arriving in Saigon City, they made a fortune step by step by relying on the shipping industry.
In Zhang Meilan's generation, although she did not continue to do shipping by "inheriting her father's business", after all, her ancestors were Chaoshan people and were already good at business, so when she grew up, she also started other businesses.
Since the age of 16, when Zhang Meilan was still in school, she often sold cosmetics to her classmates at school. At that time, cosmetics were considered a "rare commodity", and many families could not afford them.
The cosmetics sold by Zhang Meilan are not only cheap, but also effective. In addition, she has some business acumen herself, and people can talk. As a result, her cosmetics business is doing well.
After graduation, Zhang Meilan, who has a cosmetics purchase channel and some experience in beauty, opened a beauty shop with the support of her family.
The shop of the beauty shop is not large, but it is enough for Zhang Meilan, who is officially starting a business for the first time. In the process, she gradually accumulated some entrepreneurial experience.
By the early 90s of the last century, Zhang Meilan saw new business opportunities.
At that time, China was undergoing reform and opening up, and under a series of measures, countless ordinary people went to the sea to start businesses. And this happened to be noticed by Zhang Meilan.
There is no other reason, on the one hand, although Zhang Meilan grew up in Vietnam, after all, her ancestors are from China, and she will have some concerns about China;
On the other hand, at that time, under the instructions of the Soviet Union, Vietnam repeatedly invaded the mainland border, from the end of the 70s of the last century to the early 90s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vietnam's actions began to stop.
After the pause, Vietnam began to take the initiative to negotiate peace, and began to follow the example of the mainland in carrying out "reform and opening up" and making every effort to develop economic construction. After seeing this opportunity, Zhang Meilan discussed it with her family, and finally decided to take advantage of the spring breeze of Vietnam's version of "reform and opening up" to start a business and start a foreign trade business.
This was the prototype of VTP Group, but the scale was not so large at that time, and it could only be regarded as a small company specializing in foreign trade.
Later, with the support of various policies of the government and the shrewd operation of Zhang Meilan, VTP began to grow gradually, and Zhang Meilan's business territory began to develop from foreign trade to catering and hotel industry.
In this process, in order to get more investment, Zhang Meilan married Hong Kong businessman Zhu Liji to inject new vitality into the business map.
In 2006, VTP officially changed its name to "VTP Group".
At this time, Zhang Meilan's attention once again shifted from catering and hotels to the real estate industry, and began to build squares and buildings. Among them, Union Square and Times Square, which are landmark buildings in Vietnam, are both developed by VTP Group.
With the growth of VTP Group day by day, its status in Vietnam has also reached the same level as Li Ka-shing's status in the mainland, belonging to the existence of "industry bosses", and even won the title of "the richest woman" in Vietnam.
It's just that when the future of VTP Group is bright, Zhang Meilan is not satisfied with the development speed of VTP Group. At this time, after enjoying the various benefits of success, her ambitions have begun to swell.
In order to be able to get more funds to invest in larger projects, Zhang Meilan did not hesitate to destroy the "feathers" she had built up over the years and began to move towards the road of "illegal fundraising".
She tried to use the Saigon Commercial Bank, which she held the largest shareholding, to operate "unknowingly", but she didn't want to, and in the end all this was revealed to the world.
3. Zhang Meilan invited Li Ka-shing to invest in Vietnam
When the "Zhang Meilan Incident" was exposed, in addition to Zhang Meilan herself, there was another person who became the object of people's discussion, that is: Li Ka-shing.
Why did Li Ka-shing have anything to do with this?
It turned out that in order to get more investment and expand the market, Zhang Meilan found Li Ka-shing and invited her to visit Vietnam to discuss cooperation matters.
Under the lead of acquaintances, Li Ka-shing is obviously also a little tempted. Although the domestic real estate environment is somewhat turbulent, the real estate environment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, seems to be on the rise.
In the 2021 Asia-Pacific property investment rankings, Ho Chi Minh City's real estate investment status has ranked sixth in the entire Asia-Pacific region. In April 2022, property prices in Ho Chi Minh City reached their highest point since 2012.
In the years of the special period, although the economy of many industries was in a relatively sluggish state, the real estate industry in Ho Chi Minh City attracted a steady stream of foreign investment.
And this is exactly what Li Ka-shing values. Not to mention that Zhang Meilan still has expensive land in her hands and contacts that have been in business for many years.
If it weren't for the arrest of Zhang Meilan later, the cooperation between Cheung Kong Group and VTP Group could be called a "strong alliance". But after Zhang Meilan's "illegal fundraising" was exposed, Li Ka-shing's cooperation naturally came to naught.
Not only that, because the two had talked about cooperation before, the police also launched some investigations into their related partners after arresting Zhang Meilan.
Although Li Ka-shing did not participate in Zhang Meilan's behind-the-scenes affairs, there were a lot of discussions about him.
The "partner" in Vietnam was arrested by the police, and it is unknown whether Li Ka-shing can find a partner to cooperate with in Vietnam in the future.
epilogue
This is not the first time that Truong My Lan's case has been staged in Vietnam, as the Vietnamese government has cracked down on Ho Chi Minh City's rising housing prices and frequent financial speculation.
Therefore, Zhang Meilan's "exposure" is accidental, but it is also inevitable.
It is undeniable that she has indeed done a lot of public welfare undertakings in the past and indirectly saved countless lives. But this does not mean that she can "defraud" other people while doing public welfare, and the two are not "canceling each other".
No matter what city or region, the importance of strict regulation is self-evident in the rapid economic development. "Speculation" may not be guilty, but "speculation" that violates the law is destined to be intolerable to the market.
- Author: Mu Tao
- Edit: The sound of the night rain is annoying