Recently, the news that Vietnam's richest woman, Truong My Lan, was sentenced to death has caused an uproar in the business community.
Although Vietnam still retains a law that imposes a maximum penalty of death for economic and financial crimes, it is still quite rare in actual cases.
It can be said that since the launch of Vietnam's anti-corruption operation, codenamed "Burning Furnace", Vietnam's richest woman, Truong My Lan, is the first person to be arrested and sentenced to death at present and in the future.
So what unspeakable crimes did the richest woman in Vietnam, a well-known local real estate tycoon, commit such a huge fortune and be sentenced to death by the court?
1. Zhang Meilan's family history
In 1956, Zhang Meilan, whose ancestral home is Haojiang, Shantou, Guangdong, was born in Vietnam.
Zhang Meilan's ancestors were during the Qing Dynasty in the mainland, and after immigrants arrived in Vietnam, they quickly took root in Vietnam and started trading. Her family is one of the most prosperous Chinese merchant families in Vietnam.
Truong was born in Saigon, Vietnam, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Chang Mei Lan's father is a native of Vietnam, and her mother is of Vietnamese Chinese descent.
Zhang Meilan's father was an excellent businessman and was nurtured by his father since she was a child. Under the influence of her ears and eyes, Zhang Meilan showed her high business talent when she was still studying in her teens.
Zhang Meilan started her first business when she was 16 years old in high school, and other classmates were still studying and playing, but Zhang Meilan was focused on her "career" of making money.
She was keenly aware that there were many classmates in the school at that time who loved vanity, so she took the opportunity to sell all kinds of scarce items from abroad at the school.
When the real money banknotes were held in her hands, Zhang Meilan experienced the fun of making money for the first time. With the "first pot of gold" Zhang Meilan, she opened her legendary business road.
In the 90s, Vietnam, which was "crossing the river" by touching China, also learned from the mainland to carry out reform and opening up.
Sensing the arrival of the outlet, Zhang Meilan decided to devote herself to the foreign trade industry and established her own company, VTP Company.
With the benefits brought by the policy of reform and opening up, Zhang Meilan's VTP company soon made a lot of money and became the "head" enterprise in Vietnam.
In 1993, 37-year-old Zhang Meilan and Hong Kong businessman Zhu Liji entered the marriage hall.
The business marriage of the two has helped Zhang Meilan successfully obtain the product agency rights of the well-known brand LG, which makes Zhang Meilan's VTF company go to a higher level.
Since then, Zhang Meilan has gradually shifted her focus to the rising real estate industry, further expanding the company's business scale.
To make VTP a leading enterprise in Vietnam, covering real estate, financial investment, hotels, catering buildings and shopping malls.
Relying on real estate and its supporting industries, Truong Mei Lan became the richest man in Vietnam. Truong Mei Lan, who has become a business giant, can be said to be a household name in Vietnam, and the scenery is unlimited for a while.
2. Shocking crimes
Since Vietnam's reform and opening up, Zhang Meilan's industry has become bigger and bigger. Today, Saigon's Times Square, a landmark building in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the Windsor Hotel, which has hosted international conferences such as APEC, are among her company's properties.
Why did the richest woman, who is a household name, fall to the point where she is now facing the death penalty?
This is all due to Vietnam's anti-corruption campaign, code-named "Furnace of Fire".
The action has now reached the highest levels of Vietnam's national political circles, resulting in the resignation of two Vietnamese presidents, two deputy prime ministers, and at least five members of the Vietnamese State Politburo.
In October 2022, Zhang Meilan, who was in the Vietnamese business community, was suddenly arrested and imprisoned. The news swept across Vietnam and sparked a lot of social unrest.
The Vietnamese masses were curious as to why such a powerful figure had been arrested. In this regard, the Vietnamese government quickly made an explanation, publicly announcing the crimes of Truong My Lan's arrest - financial fraud, embezzlement of property, bribery and other crimes.
It is reported that 67-year-old Truong My Lan is suspected of using bribery and other illegal means to defraud 304 trillion VND, equivalent to about 90 billion yuan.
This resulted in a direct loss of about US$2.5 billion to Saigon Commercial Bank. In addition, Zhang Meilan's embezzlement, embezzlement and interest also indirectly caused the bank to lose about $17.3 billion. ‘
As of her arrest and prosecution (October 17, 2022), the total outstanding loans of Truong My Lan have exceeded VND 677 trillion, equivalent to about 27 billion US dollars, which is almost 1/9 of Vietnam's annual GDP in 2022!
This level of financial fraud has affected Vietnam's national security. If the charges against Truong My Lan are true, then it will be the biggest financial fraud case since the founding of Vietnam!
3. The hapless Saigon Commercial Bank
According to Vietnamese prosecutors' allegations, in the 10 years from early 2012 to 2022, Truong My Lan is suspected of using the ghost company to bribe Vietnamese government officials and try to illegally control Saigon Commercial Bank.
Vietnam's law limits the percentage of shares held by individuals in a single bank.
However, there were policies and countermeasures, and Zhang Meilan took advantage of the loopholes in the legal provisions to finally achieve the goal of illegally controlling the Saigon Commercial Bank.
After an investigation by Vietnamese prosecutors, they found that Truong Mai Lan had actually controlled at least 85 percent of the shares of Saigon Commercial Bank by registering hundreds of shell companies and co-opting agents.
After taking de facto and illegal control of Saigon Commercial Bank, Teo Mei Lan wantonly infiltrated her cronies into the bank and made them serve as the bank's management.
She then instructed her cronies to approve the provision of loans to the ghost company she controlled.
In the past 10 years, the ghost company controlled by Zhang Meilan has obtained thousands of loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. In the end, all the money was embezzled by Zhang Meilan and fell into her personal pocket.
While frantically "absorbing gold", Zhang Meilan clearly knew that paper could not contain fire.
As a result, Truong has stepped up her efforts to bribe Vietnamese government officials, strengthening the depth of the "protective umbrella" and allowing the highest levels of the state to cover up the crimes she has committed.
Truong My Lan has also offered bribes to senior supervisors at Vietnam's central bank.
Doy Thi Jen, a senior supervisor in Vietnam, was charged with accepting bribes in the amount of about US$5.2 million. As for the accusation, Du Shiren refused to admit it at the trial.
Zhang Meilan's series of operations brought a devastating collapse to the bank's credit, causing a frenzied run on Saigon Commercial Bank, with as many as 42,000 victims.
The victim was misled into buying a large number of the bank's bonds, but now is unable to withdraw the principal and interest. The interest on this sum alone has accumulated more than VND 129 trillion, or about US$5.2 billion.
4. Sophistry and confession in court
In the face of the court's trial, Zhang Meilan first flatly denied it and refused to admit her crime.
It wasn't until the Vietnamese police found six tons of paper documents in Truong My Lan's home and company, which were packed in more than 100 boxes.
These are all paper documents and letters exchanged by Zhang Meilan for fraud and bribery, and in the face of conclusive evidence, Zhang Meilan is no longer stubborn and confesses to her crimes.
On the afternoon of April 3, the Ho Chi Minh City Court issued a verdict in the case of Truong My Lan:
Zhang Meilan was sentenced to 19 to 20 years in prison for violating banking regulations and 19 to 20 years in prison for accepting bribes, with a total penalty of death.
After learning that she had been sentenced to death in the first instance, Zhang Meilan said in court that she would appeal. According to the relevant laws of Vietnam, the appeal period is within 15 days after the judgment of the first instance.
In the final speech of the trial, Zhang Meilan confessed that her biggest mistake was to rashly plunge herself into the financial industry that she did not know anything about, and implored the judge to forgive or give a lenient sentence to the relatives and friends who were implicated.
5. The person who was implicated
Although Zhang Meilan is a first-time offender, she has also participated in charity activities many times.
However, due to the severity of the consequences and the extremely heinous nature of the case, the Ho Chi Minh City Court in Vietnam decided to classify the case as a typical example of the "Burning Furnace" anti-corruption campaign and imposed a heavy sentence.
Vietnam's Truong My Lan's financial fraud case is the largest, deepest, and most extensive scandal involving high-level Vietnamese government since Vietnam launched its "Burning Furnace" anti-corruption campaign in 2016.
It is reported that a total of 86 defendants are involved in the case. Of these, 70 have been arrested, 11 have been released on bail pending trial, and five are at large. But Zhang Meilan's documents involved in the case alone weighed 6 tons and filled 104 boxes.
In addition to the arrest and sentencing of the main culprit Truong My Lan, Zhang Meilan's husband Zhu Liji was also accused by Vietnamese prosecutors of setting up a false loan application to extract large sums of money from Saigon Commercial Bank.
The Ho Chi Minh City Court handed down a first-instance verdict and sentenced Truong My Lan's husband, Chu Liji, to nine years in prison.
Zhang Meilan's niece, the current CEO of VTP, was also sentenced to 17 years in prison in the first instance. Most of the relatives and friends implicated by Zhang Meilan have pleaded guilty.
As the mastermind of the case, Zhang Meilan, although she said that she wanted to appeal. However, the Vietnamese prosecutor believes that Zhang Meilan not only did not have remorse during the trial, but also repeatedly shirked responsibility and refused to admit guilt, and even in the second trial, it is very likely that the original verdict will be upheld.
After the court sentenced the richest woman, Truong My Lan, to death, the Vietnamese people applauded, especially those who suffered losses from the Saigon Commercial Bank.
Work your own and put your money in the bank in order to have peace of mind insurance.
Now because of Zhang Meilan, they have suffered irreparable losses. Zhang Meilan only needs to die, but these living people have to bear the pressure of life caused by unjustified disasters.
Zhang Meilan's husband, Zhu Liji, apologized to the victim on behalf of his wife at the trial. He believes that it was his negligence in his wife that left her alone on the "business road", which led his wife astray.