From March 25, 2025, to April 21, 2025, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City will hold an appellate hearing in the case of Truong My Lan and accomplices (phase 2) for the crimes of fraudulently appropriating property (more than 30,000 billion VND), illegally transporting currency across borders (more than 106,000 billion VND) and money laundering (more than 445,000 billion VND).
The trial was opened because the defendant Truong My Lan (69 years old, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group) and 27 out of 34 defendants, 35 victims, and 7 people with related rights and obligations (including Saigon Commercial Bank - SCB) appealed to request a review of the first-instance judgment of the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City in 2024.
At the court, the presiding judge announced that 2 defendants withdrew their appeals: Tran Thi Hoang Uyen (secretary of defendant Truong My Lan) and Tran Xuan Phuong (secretary of the General Director of Van Thinh Phat Group), who were also sentenced by the first-instance court to 2 years and 6 months in prison for money laundering.
The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City's first-instance trial in 2024 sentenced defendant Truong My Lan to life imprisonment for fraudulently appropriating property, 12 years in prison for money laundering, and 8 years in prison for illegally transporting currency across borders, with a combined sentence of life imprisonment. At the same time, the court compelled defendant Lan to compensate more than 30,000 billion VND, equivalent to each corporate bond with a face value of 100,000 VND, to more than 35,000 victims.
33 co-defendants were sentenced by the court to between 2 - 23 years in prison. Defendant Chu Lap Co (69 years old, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Times Square Investment Joint Stock Company) was sentenced to 2 years in prison for helping his wife launder 33 billion VND. Defendant Co did not appeal this judgment. Defendant Truong Hue Van (Lan's niece, General Director of Van Thinh Phat Group) was sentenced to 5 years in prison for aiding defendant Lan in defrauding money from bondholders.
From 2018 to 2020, key personnel at SCB and TVSI Securities Company discussed, selected, and utilized 4 companies of Van Thinh Phat Group to issue 25 fictitious bond codes without collateral. The total volume is more than 308 million bonds, which is valued at over 30,000 billion VND.
From 2018 to 2022, defendant Truong My Lan and accomplices appropriated 445,000 billion VND obtained from her criminal acts of property embezzlement (415,000 billion VND) and fraudulently appropriating property (30,000 billion VND). This appropriation resulted in significant losses for many investors.
The total amount of money that Lan and her accomplices illegally transported across the border was more than 4.5 billion USD, equivalent to more than 106,000 billion VND. These illegal transfers were often disguised as legitimate transactions involving 'ghost' companies.
In the first phase of the case, which concluded at the end of 2024, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld the death sentence for defendant Truong My Lan on three counts: property embezzlement (resulting in death penalty), bribery (20 years in prison), and violations of lending regulations in credit operations (16 years in prison; first-instance was 20 years in prison). The court obligated defendant Lan to reimburse SCB more than 673,000 billion VND, marking one of the largest financial scandals in Vietnam's recent history.
This case has attracted significant attention from the public and media as it involves high-profile business figures and raises serious concerns about governance and accountability within financial and investment institutions in Vietnam.
The continued proceedings at the appellate court will determine the fate of not only the defendants but also the standards of corporate governance and legal accountability in Vietnam's rapidly evolving economy.
