Ms. Truong My Lan is being investigated for money laundering.

At a press conference on the situation and results of police work in 2023 held on the afternoon of December 27th, Major General Nguyen Van Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Criminal Investigation of Economic Crimes (C03), Ministry of Public Security , provided information on the second phase of the investigation in the case involving Van Thinh Phat Group, SCB Bank, and related entities.

Bà Trương Mỹ Lan bị điều tra tội rửa tiền - 1 — Major General Nguyen Van Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Criminal Investigation of Economic Crimes (C03), Ministry of Public Security, provided information at the press conference (Photo: Hai Nam).

According to Major General Thanh, this is a major case, with a large number of defendants and related individuals. Therefore, the investigating agency has separated the case to investigate in two phases.

In phase 2, the Ministry of Public Security focused its investigation on two main charges: Fraudulent appropriation of assets related to bonds and Money laundering, involving Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group).

Regarding the bond issuance fraud, the head of Department C03 stated that the investigating agency has initially determined that Ms. Truong My Lan issued 25 bond packages through four businesses, raising approximately 30,000 billion VND.

Bà Trương Mỹ Lan bị điều tra tội rửa tiền - 2 — Ms. Truong My Lan (Photo: VTP).

"The difficulty now is identifying the victims (investors who bought bonds - PV)," Major General Thanh said.

The Deputy Director suggested that investors who bought bonds from Ms. Lan and her accomplices should report the incident to the local police where the victims registered their addresses on the bonds.

Regarding money laundering, Major General Thanh stated that the law clearly defines the acts that constitute money laundering.

The head of Department C03 cited the example of criminals using money obtained through crime for investment, banking transactions, and even for sponsorship and charity.

Furthermore, Major General Thanh stated that the money that Ms. Truong My Lan withdrew through banking activities was invested in and used to acquire large real estate properties nationwide, and a portion was transferred abroad.

In phase 1, the Ministry of Public Security completed the investigation and transferred the case file to the Supreme People's Procuracy.

The prosecution subsequently issued an indictment against Ms. Truong My Lan and 85 other defendants. Ms. Truong My Lan was charged with embezzlement, bribery, and violating regulations on lending by credit institutions.

The Supreme People's Procuracy's indictment concluded that from 2012 to October 2022, Ms. Truong My Lan acquired and held from 85% to 91.5% of SCB Bank's shares.

From then on, the defendant became a shareholder with "power" to direct, manage, and manipulate all operations of SCB Bank, serving his various purposes.

The Chairman of Van Thinh Phat Group and his accomplices are accused of committing a series of acts including: Selecting and appointing trusted personnel to key positions at SCB Bank; establishing several units within SCB Bank specializing in lending and disbursing funds at the request of Truong My Lan; establishing and using thousands of "shell" companies and hiring many individuals; colluding with individuals at the head of many related businesses to commit crimes; colluding with many valuation companies to inflate the value of collateral assets; creating a very large number of fraudulent loan applications to withdraw money from SCB Bank; devising plans to withdraw money and "cut off" the flow of funds after disbursement; selling bad debts and deferred credit to reduce outstanding credit balances and bad debts to conceal wrongdoing; bribing and influencing officials in state agencies to act against their official duties.

From then on, Ms. Lan and her accomplices, in various positions and roles, committed numerous crimes infringing on property rights, disrupting banking operations, and interfering with the proper functioning of state agencies.

In this case, the prosecuting authorities determined that many acts were committed in the form of organized complicity with sophisticated and cunning methods, causing exceptionally serious consequences, misappropriating and causing exceptionally large financial losses.

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