• Home
  • Politics
  • Health
  • World
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
What's Hot

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

May 29, 2025

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Saturday, May 31
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
  • Home
  • Politics

    Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man

    October 24, 2023

    Woman makes disturbing discovery after her boyfriend chases away home intruder who stabbed him

    October 24, 2023

    Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly support Israel’s war on Hamas, but younger Americans defend Hamas

    October 24, 2023

    Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut off engines midflight on Alaska Airlines

    October 23, 2023

    Leaked audio of Shelia Jackson Lee abusively cursing staffer

    October 22, 2023
  • Health

    Disparities In Cataract Care Are A Sorry Sight

    October 16, 2023

    Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand

    October 16, 2023

    Long-term steroid use should be a last resort

    October 16, 2023

    Rite Aid Files For Bankruptcy With More ‘Underperforming Stores’ To Close

    October 16, 2023

    Who’s Still Dying From Complications Related To Covid-19?

    October 16, 2023
  • World

    New York Democrat Dan Goldman Accuses ‘Conservatives in the South’ of Holding Rallies with ‘Swastikas’

    October 13, 2023

    IDF Ret. Major General Describes Rushing to Save Son, Granddaughter During Hamas Invasion

    October 13, 2023

    Black Lives Matter Group Deletes Tweet Showing Support for Hamas 

    October 13, 2023

    AOC Denounces NYC Rally Cheering Hamas Terrorism: ‘Unacceptable’

    October 13, 2023

    L.A. Prosecutors Call Out Soros-Backed Gascón for Silence on Israel

    October 13, 2023
  • Business

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

    May 29, 2025

    ‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

    May 29, 2025

    DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

    May 28, 2025

    John Deere Announces $20 Billion Plan To Build Up American Manufacturing

    May 28, 2025

    EV Startup Promised To Cut China Ties — Then Reportedly Shared US Data Anyway

    May 27, 2025
  • Finance

    Ending China’s De Minimis Exception Brings 3 Benefits for Americans

    April 17, 2025

    The Trump Tariff Shock Should Push Indonesia to Reform Its Economy

    April 17, 2025

    Tariff Talks an Opportunity to Reinvigorate the Japan-US Alliance

    April 17, 2025

    How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War

    April 16, 2025

    The US Flip-flop Over H20 Chip Restrictions 

    April 16, 2025
  • Tech

    Cruz Confronts Zuckerberg on Pointless Warning for Child Porn Searches

    February 2, 2024

    FTX Abandons Plans to Relaunch Crypto Exchange, Commits to Full Repayment of Customers and Creditors

    February 2, 2024

    Elon Musk Proposes Tesla Reincorporates in Texas After Delaware Judge Voids Pay Package

    February 2, 2024

    Tesla’s Elon Musk Tops Disney’s Bob Iger as Most Overrated Chief Executive

    February 2, 2024

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Grew $84 Billion in 2023 as Pedophiles Target Children on Facebook, Instagram

    February 2, 2024
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
Home»Finance»Vietnam Opens Trial in $12.5 Billion Corruption Case
Finance

Vietnam Opens Trial in $12.5 Billion Corruption Case

March 6, 2024No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Vietnam Opens Trial in $12.5 Billion Corruption Case
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Vietnam yesterday opened its trial in the case of the real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who faces the death penalty in one of the country’s largest-ever corruption cases.

The 66-year-old, who headed real estate company Van Thinh Phat, is accused of using “thousands of ghost companies” to embezzle an eye-popping 304 trillion dong ($12.54 billion) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), along with scores of accomplices. Lan is accused of paying scores of bribes to government officials and violating banking regulations, The Associated Press reported, citing a government document.

According to VnExpress, which has covered the case against Lan in detail since her arrest in late 2022, hundreds of police officers were deployed to ensure security on the opening day of the trial, which is taking place at Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court.

Lan’s alleged scheme was dazzlingly complex. As I attempted to detail late last year, citing a series of detailed reports by VnExpress, investigators claim that it involved more than 1,000 domestic and foreign shell companies that were set up under the auspices of Van Thinh Phat Group. They claim Lan and her accomplices used the SCB, of which she has been the majority shareholder since 2012, as their personal ATM, withdrawing an estimated 1 quadrillion dong ($44 billion) in loans against the savings of SCB’s customers between 2012 and 2022.

Of this, she eventually appropriated 304 trillion dong, an amount equivalent to nearly 3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2022, through complex machinations involving false loan applications and the aforementioned “ghost companies.” According to VN Express, the documents related to the case weigh six tons.

See also  $53 Billion Sought for More Missiles, Ships

In announcing the outcome of its investigations into Van Thinh Phat in November, the Ministry of Public Security described Lan’s alleged violations as “extremely elaborate, meticulous, with detailed and carefully prepared scripts.” It recommended that she be charged with a variety of crimes, including bribery, violating banking regulations, and embezzlement.

Lan, who founded Van Thinh Phat in 1992, was arrested in October 2022, along with her granddaughter Truong Hue Van, 34, the CEO of Windsor Property Management. Van is also on trial for causing a loss of 1.1 trillion dong ($44.5 million) to the bank, as is Lan’s husband, Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu, who is accused of helping her borrow money illegally from the bank, causing it a loss of VND9.12 trillion ($369 million).

Also on trial are a further 82 people who are alleged to have benefited from and helped prop up the complex architecture of graft. These include 45 SCB executives, 15 State Bank of Vietnam officials, three officials from the Government Inspectorate, and one former official from the State Audit Office.

As VnExpress reports, the Van Thinh Phat trial is expected to go on until April 29, during which time the court will hear 2,400 witnesses and other experts, including 40 lawyers. If found guilty, Lan faces the death penalty.

In purely monetary terms, Lan’s case is the largest that has yet been uncovered by Vietnam’s “blazing furnace” anti-corruption campaign, which has burned its way through the upper echelons of the Vietnamese political and business community since its launch in 2016. The brain-child of Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the campaign has so far seen the arrest and dismissal of thousands of bureaucrats, government officials, and corporate executives. The blowtorch reached the highest levels of the Vietnamese government early last year, when President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime ministers were forced to step down, for “violations and wrongdoings” related to pandemic-era corruption scandals.

See also  Yields Surge as Hot Inflation Data Emboldens Hawks: Markets Wrap

The fact that such a gargantuan case of graft was seemingly undeterred by the crackdown, and only came to light in 2022, raises interesting questions about where and when the campaign might end. In November, shortly after the allegations against Van Thinh Phat were made public, Trong said that the anti-graft efforts were only set to intensify. “We need to conduct the anti-corruption fight faster in a more efficient manner,” he said according to a Reuters report. “We won’t stop here, but will continue for the long term.”

As I wrote in November, the fact that the party-state has been waging a white-hot anti-corruption campaign for six years and is still unearthing massive cases of graft suggests that it is not (or not only) a case of corrupted morals among the country’s political and business elite. Instead, it reflects the “almost systemic nature of the problem – one that may be inseparable from the CPV’s monopoly on power.”

Billion case Corruption opens trial Vietnam
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

John Deere Announces $20 Billion Plan To Build Up American Manufacturing

May 28, 2025

Iconic Food Brand Kraft Heinz Investing $3 Billion In US Manufacturing

May 14, 2025

Zuckerberg’s Trillion-Dollar Meta Empire Sits On Razor’s Edge As Antitrust Case Rolls On

April 26, 2025

$15 Billion And Climbing: Trump’s Tariffs Deliver Record High Revenue

April 25, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Judge Who Had Speech at Stanford Disrupted Was ‘a Little Bit of a Fragile Flower’

March 26, 2023

No Charges In University Of South Carolina Student Shooting

August 31, 2023

Google-parent Alphabet dissolves stake in trading app Robinhood

November 13, 2023

Impeachment Managers Chosen for Senate Trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

May 31, 2023
Don't Miss

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

Business May 29, 2025

Consumers’ Research issued a “Woke Alert” on Thursday warning American shoppers that three European companies…

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025

John Deere Announces $20 Billion Plan To Build Up American Manufacturing

May 28, 2025
About
About

This is your World, Tech, Health, Entertainment and Sports website. We provide the latest breaking news straight from the News industry.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Categories
  • Business (4,136)
  • Entertainment (4,220)
  • Finance (3,202)
  • Health (1,938)
  • Lifestyle (1,645)
  • Politics (3,084)
  • Sports (4,036)
  • Tech (2,006)
  • Uncategorized (4)
  • World (3,944)
Our Picks

Myanmar Economy to Shrink Further in 2025, World Bank Says

December 12, 2024

Kid Rock Concertgoers Vow to Drink ‘Anything But Bud Light’ as Sales Continue to Plummet

July 5, 2023

IRS Rule Change Should Have You Rethinking How You Leave Assets to Heirs

September 16, 2023
Popular Posts

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Man She Is Today’: European Companies Accused Of ‘Importing’ Woke Ideology

May 29, 2025

‘The Economy Is On Fire!’: Kevin O’Leary Drops Fact Check On CNN Panelists Railing Against Trump’s Economy

May 29, 2025

DeSantis Signs Bill Making Gold And Silver Legal Tender

May 28, 2025
© 2025 Patriotnownews.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.