Trương Mỹ Lan

Trương Mỹ Lan (, born 13 October 1956) is a Vietnamese businesswoman and convicted criminal. She is the founder of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, a real estate development group. In October 2022, she was arrested for using fake loan applications to embezzle more than US$12.5 billion from Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, which she controlled through more than two dozen middlemen. This caused a bank run.

In March 2024, the trial for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations began. It is considered the largest corruption scandal in Southeast Asia's history. On 11 April 2024, Lan was sentenced to death.

Early life and education
Trương Mỹ Lan was born on 13 October 1956, in Saigon, South Vietnam. Her family is of Teochew heritage, from the village of Gezhou in Shantou, Guangdong;  settling in "Little Gezhou", Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), an uncle founded the maritime business Hòa Thuận Phát  in Chợ Lớn.

Career
Lan originally owned a business for hair accessories in Ho Chi Minh City. Using connections to the government led her to enter the real estate business. In 1992, she founded and chaired the board of directors of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, a real estate firm for luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels, and shopping centers and also financial services.

From 2012 until 2022, Lan controlled Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), Vietnam's largest bank by assets in Ho Chi Minh City. SCB was established in 2012 from the merger of three banks facing bankruptcy in 2011; nevertheless, the State Bank of Vietnam allowed the merger of these three banks, with Trương Mỹ Lan's continued control through more than two dozen middlemen, and 93 percent of loans going to her company and associated shell companies.

2022 arrest
Lan was arrested on 6 October 2022 after years of investigation. She was accused of illegally issuing bonds worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars in 2018 and 2019 and using 916 fake loan applications to appropriate more than 304 trillion dong (US$12.5 billion) from Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, of which she owned more than 90 percent of the shares, from 9 February 2018 to 7 October 2022. After three SCB employees committed suicide, on 6, 9 and 14 October, a bank run ensued.

The arrest and trial were considered part of the anti-corruption policy of leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng, who described it as a "blazing furnace" (đốt lò).

2024 trial
On 5 March 2024, the trial began at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. It is considered the largest corruption scandal in Southeast Asia, as by comparison, the Malaysian 1MDB scandal in the 2010s involved only €4.1 billion.

Besides her husband and niece, there were 82 more defendants; "45 are former leaders of SCB, 15 former State Bank of Vietnam officers, three Government Inspectorate officers, and one former officer from the State Audit Office....Five of the former leaders of SCB are now in hiding."

On 11 April 2024, Lan was sentenced to death, by lethal injection, for embezzlement. All the other defendants were also found guilty and given sentences ranging from three years (suspended) to life imprisonment. Her husband and niece were sentenced to nine and seventeen years respectively.

Personal life
Lan is married to Eric Chu Nap Kee (朱立基), a businessman in the real estate sector in Hong Kong. In March 2024, her husband was also summoned to the trial, as well as her niece Trương Huệ Vân, age 34, the CEO of a property management firm.

Lan's family is one of the richest families in Vietnam. This money has been used to contribute to multiple projects in her ancestral hometown in China. Lan's embezzlement of $12.5 billion equals about three percent of Vietnam's total GDP for 2022.

In March 2024 her niece, who had lived with her since childhood, admitted that she established 52 shell companies and four regular companies to obtain 155 loans at SCB.