The Vạn Thịnh Phát Scandal is Back
More names, more alleged crimes
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On to the news.
Even with plenty of jaw-dropping moments in the rear-view mirror, the Vạn Thịnh Phát scandal is far from over since police are still conducting the second part of their investigation.
Those details (and more charges) are now coming to light.
Last Thursday, Ministry of Public Security investigators proposed charges of appropriating assets, money laundering, and illegal cross-border money transport for Trương Mỹ Lan and 33 other people (it’s not worth getting into all the names right now, though the full list in Vietnamese is here).
These charges revolve around several alleged actions:
Lan and her associates are accused of issuing 25 bond packages to appropriate over US$1.2 billion from 35,000 people
Lan is accused of masterminding the laundering of US$17.5 billion - US$16.3 billion in embezzled funds from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), plus the US$1.2 billion from bonds
Lan and companies related to VTP are accused of conducting US$4.5 billion in illegal cross-border transactions from 2012-2022
Lan was already sentenced to death for causing losses of US$27 billion at the end of her first trial. She appealed that sentence, though I’ve seen no update on that process. So what does all of this mean now?