The female shopkeeper of South Beauty is called Zhang Lan.
The richest woman in Vietnam is called Truong My Lan.
I don't know if there is a kind of metaphysics, women with "Zhang" and "Lan" in their names are bound to be rich.
But Zhang Meilan's life may not be as good as Zhang Lan's, and she has no chance to make a comeback.
On April 11, Truong My Lan was sentenced to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Truong My Lan, a 67-year-old mysterious woman, touches the nerves of Vietnamese.
With Chinese ancestry, Li Ka-shing and her have also had a close relationship, and have been in the Vietnamese business community for many years, and are one of the top taxpayers in Vietnam.
During the epidemic, she donated medical supplies worth 570 million yuan to solve the urgent needs of the Vietnamese government.
Why did Vietnam "cross the river and tear down the bridge" to arrest such a businessman who had contributed to Vietnam?
ONE
Vietnamese version of 'Xu Jiayin'
Truong My Lan has always been a central figure in Vietnam's financial industry, and her VTP Group is involved in real estate, finance, catering, hotels and other businesses.
Zhang Meilan, nicknamed "Zhang Mei", immigrated to Vietnam during the Qing Dynasty and is a deep-rooted Chinese merchant family.
When Teo Mei Lan was born, her family had already made their way in Saigon, and she also showed great talent and interest in business.
Zhang Meilan started out as a market vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. When she was studying, she sold the items she got from her own channels to her classmates and successfully earned the first pot of gold in her life.
After making money, Zhang Meilan began to buy land and real estate, and in the 90s of the 20th century, she owned a large number of hotels and restaurants.
In 1992, with the help of her family, Zhang Meilan established VTP Company.
● VTP Group Office Building
In the beginning, Zhang Meilan first engaged in the trading business, and the following year married Hong Kong businessman Chu Liji, and they got the agency rights of LG products.
Zhang Meilan's eyes were terrifyingly poisonous.
Although Vietnam has announced reform and opening up since 1986, there is not much room for the development of the market economy.
In 91, the collapse of the big brother of the Soviet Union, the example that Vietnam had been learning from collapsed, forcing Vietnam to carry out deep changes.
As the saying goes, if the eldest brother is not good, there is also the second brother.
Following China's model and increasing opening-up has become Vietnam's new national policy.
Zhang Meilan then made a bold decision, pushing all the focus to real estate, and all the weight to the land.
Since then, Zhang Meilan got Xu Jiayin's script and officially opened it.
Ho Chi Minh City's landmark building, Saigon Times Square, is the handiwork of Truong My Lan.
Around 2000, Truong My Lan targeted Nguyen Hue Avenue, the largest pedestrian street in District 1 of the core district of Ho Chi Minh City, and bought a large amount of land on both sides of the road.
Today, many iconic buildings on both sides of Nguyen Hue Boulevard, such as Union Square, Times Square, VTP Office Building, Duxton Hotel, etc., are her property.
In 2007, Truong Mei Lan invested 6 trillion VND (about 1.7 billion yuan) to register VTP Group.
In addition to the above-mentioned properties, there is also the Windsor Hotel, which hosted the most luxurious APEC summit in Vietnam in 2006.
As expected, Zhang Meilan became the richest man.
When a person is successful on his own turf, he or she often looks abroad.
Zhang Meilan is like this, not to mention that she also has a husband Zhu Liji in Hong Kong.
Chu Liji, a native of Hong Kong, went through ups and downs in his early years and settled in Vietnam.
He and Zhang Meilan are like-minded, the husband and wife have a good relationship, and they go hand in hand and fight together in the shopping mall.
The outside world commented on him:
"Zhu Liji is a shrewd person, he is clear-mouthed, generous when he should be generous, and he will know how to deal with you when he is small......"
Zhang Meilan and his wife have gone to China many times to "find their roots and ask their ancestors", and each time they will donate generously.
Haojiang Folk Culture Park, Immersion Stone Tianhou Temple, Zhang's Ancestral Hall, Guandi Temple...... She had spent a lot of money in her homeland, even though her ancestors had been gone for hundreds of years.
Through Zhu Liji, Zhang Meilan's Chinese identity played a role and connected with Hong Kong.
If anyone is talking about the clan connection of "the same root and the same branch" to the extreme, it must be Chaoshan businessman Li Ka-shing.
Although Zhang Meilan is Vietnamese, she sheds Chaoshan blood, and Li Ka-shing's "group" is connected to Zhang Meilan again.
"Queen of Prime Real Estate" is the title of Zhang Meilan.
Li Ka-shing wants to invest in Vietnam's property market, and working with her is the best choice.
In April 2022, representatives of the Li Ka-shing family's Cheung Kong and Japan's ORIX participated in the Investment Promotion Action Week held in Ho Chi Minh City, and it was VTP Group that invited them.
At that time, the news that "Li Ka-shing will invest in Vietnam" also became a hot topic of public opinion.
However, the cooperation has not yet been reached, and half a year later, the Vietnamese police announced a bombshell news:
Arrest Zhang Meilan, chairman of VTP Group.
Good guy, Li Ka-shing escaped again.
TWO
played real estate and finance, and Li Ka-shing came to take over
Ms. Zhang actually knows how to be a human being.
During the epidemic, Zhang Meilan donated a large amount of medical and epidemic prevention materials and cash to the Vietnamese government, worth more than 570 million yuan.
Not only that, Zhang Meilan also invested heavily in Vietnamese charity.
VTP buys medical insurance for Chinese teachers every year to provide them with financial support.
But all dreams came to an end in 2016 – because Vietnam began an anti-corruption campaign in 2016.
Under the resolute leadership of party leader Nguyen Phu Trong, the campaign has achieved remarkable results, even among the top political circles.
And Zhang Meilan, as the richest man, was strictly investigated.
▲Zhang Meilan was sentenced to death
Zhang Meilan's story surfaced:
Although Vietnam stipulates that individuals cannot hold more than 5% of the bank's shares, she is able to control more than 90% of Saigon Commercial Bank's shares through many minority shareholders.
Once she took control of the shares, Ms. Zhang began to manipulate the bank's top management to lend money to her shell company, and then transfer the funds, and the money disappeared without a trace.
In the three years since February 2019, Zhang Meilan has withdrawn more than $4.4 billion worth of cash from the bank and deposited it in the basement of her mansion.
With so much money, even if it is exchanged for the largest denomination of VND, the total weight will reach 2 tons.
In the end, Truong was sentenced to death for fraud of up to 12.5 billion US dollars (about 90 billion yuan), which is equivalent to almost 3% of Vietnam's GDP last year.
Zhang Meilan cried in court and complained that she had voted indiscriminately and didn't understand. The financial system is messy, and I don't know if it will go wrong.
Zhang Meilan's husband was still running for her, but another crow flew back.
△ Zhang Meilan's husband Zhu Liji (middle) is in the trial
On April 8, 2024, Li Ka-shing, who values the feelings of his fellow villagers, sent a letter to a Vietnamese court expressing interest in the acquisition of billions of dollars worth of assets linked to the financial fraud case.
Some tide businessmen, on the front, are "rich and noble, don't forget each other", and when they turn around, they see that "businessmen value profits and ignore separation".