Vietnam is a neighbor of our country, but we know very little about Vietnam. Probably the biggest impression most people have of Vietnam is that marrying a Vietnamese wife doesn't require a high bride price.
Vietnam as a whole has the impression that the area is relatively small and the people are poor.
Our understanding of Vietnam is really one-sided, just like our understanding of India. India's richest man can squeeze into the top 10 in the world, while China's richest man can only rank 21st in the world. Vietnam's rich people are not pitiful, they are also wealthy.
Recently, Vietnam's richest woman, Truong My Lan, was sentenced to death because she was accused of embezzlement, bribery, fraud and other crimes, of which the amount of fraud was as high as 304 trillion VND, about 12.5 billion US dollars, equivalent to 90.4 billion yuan. This amount is equivalent to 3% of Vietnam's GDP in 2022.
There are so many fraudulent amounts alone, you can imagine how high Zhang Meilan's net worth will be. So the question is, how did she engage in fraud?
The root cause lies in Saigon Commercial Bank, which is the fifth largest bank in Vietnam. Prosecutors believe that Zhang Meilan controlled 91.5 percent of the shares of Saigon Commercial Bank through illegal means, and after having absolute control, she could recklessly take out loans from this bank. From 2012 to 2022, Truong My Lan and her accomplices took out more than 2,500 loans from this bank, with a total amount of more than 1,000 trillion VND, reaching 10% of Vietnam's GDP (2023).
Of the so much money loaned, 304 trillion VND was misappropriated. A total of 85 people, most of them officials, were jointly prosecuted for the Truong My Lan case, and Du Thi Nhin alone received a bribe of $5.2 million (this person is the head of the inspection and supervision department of the Central Bank of Vietnam). This amount may not be shocking to us, but it is a very large amount in Vietnam. Among the people who were prosecuted, there was another special one, that is, her Hong Kong husband, who was also involved.
In order to ensure that Zhang Meilan and related persons involved in the case can be arrested, Vietnamese prosecutors have used a total of 104 boxes to prepare materials, with a total weight of up to 6 tons, and waste paper can also be sold for a lot of money.
Ms. Truong denied the accusations of Vietnamese prosecutors, saying she owned only 4.9 percent of the bank. The two daughters each hold a 5% stake. The rest of the shares are foreign shareholders and friends, and it is not that many shares that they really own. Obviously, Zhang Meilan's argument is not convincing in any way, nor can it reduce any of Zhang Meilan's punishment.
So the question is, what is Zhang Meilan's background, and how does she have a Chinese name?
It is understood that Zhang Meilan was born in 1956 and her ancestral home is Shantou, Guangdong. Before the Qing Dynasty fell, her great-grandfather traveled south to Saigon, Vietnam, in what is now Ho Chi Minh City.
In 1986, Vietnam implemented "reform and opening up", which means very clearly, similar to the mainland's reform and opening up, ordinary people can do business. Zhang Meilan, who has the genes of the Chaoshan Gang, chose to go to the sea and started from the stall business.
Zhang Meilan has a Hong Kong husband named Zhu Liji. Zhu Liji himself also likes to wander, and met Zhang Meilan during his time in Vietnam, and the two became husband and wife.
In 1987, the couple established Wandefa Company, which was just a trading business, mainly as an agent of LG. At that time, LG was very strong, and it was in the early days of Vietnam's reform and opening up, as long as it could find potential customers, it could make a lot of money. The couple also seized this opportunity and earned the first pot of gold in their lives. Zhang Meilan's wealth experience is very similar to that of some wealthy people in China, they all started as agents.
In 1995, it began to enter the hotel field, mainly in the wedding banquet market. With the Asian financial crisis raging in 1997, Zhang Meilan bucked the trend and bought the Windsor Hotel, and soon became famous.
After 2000, Zhang Meilan also entered the most profitable industry, real estate. Don't underestimate Vietnam, because its housing prices in some places are not high, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, where the average price exceeds 40,000 yuan per square meter, which is not cheaper than in China. The housing price in the core area exceeds 100,000 yuan per square meter, which is unaffordable for the vast majority of Vietnamese.
The reason why housing prices in Ho Chi Minh City are so high is that Truong My Lan has played a certain role in promoting it. Because she, like the real estate tycoons in China, constantly takes land to build houses for sale, and takes loans from her own bank when she has no money. With her own hematopoietic system, she can grow faster than other companies. In addition, Zhang Meilan has also participated in some demolition and reconstruction projects, which are easy to get money.
During the epidemic, Zhang Meilan also invited Li Ka-shing to Vietnam to inspect investment, and Zhang Meilan has the meaning of "Hong Kong Li Ka-shing". It's a pity that in 2022, Zhang Meilan was arrested, one year earlier than Xu Jiayin.
After Zhang Meilan was arrested, there was a phenomenon of three killings in the stock market, property market, and foreign exchange market in Vietnam, which also shows how much impact Zhang Meilan has on the Vietnamese economy!
This is the best era, but also the worst era, with capital thinking and new business model integration, the whole world is your stage!
In the world of new business, there is no eliminated industry, only the subverted out of the enterprise, and now all business competition will focus on "model innovation and capital operation".
A company or a boss, if there is a shortage of innovation ability and capital thinking, is destined to lose in advance.
Remember: without innovation, how can there be imagination, without imagination, how can there be competitiveness, if you want to break through, you must subvert the original business model, reconstruct a new business model!