Dream - The corruption that occurred in one of the largest private commercial banks in Vietnam was recently revealed by authorities in the country. The corruption implicated property entrepreneur Truong My Lan, who was arrested on October 8th last year. She is suspected of embezzling hundreds of trillions of money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

Quoting VN Express, the corruption involving Truong My Lan also affected her husband Eric Chu's business, who sold assets worth US$127.6 million or equivalent to Rp1.9 trillion. Eric is reportedly selling apartments and even hotels. Eric Chu and Truong My Lan have real estate assets worth around US$1 billion.

Then Lan established Van Thinh Phat Limited Liability Company in 1992 which is engaged in the fields of trade, restaurant, and hotel. Then he moved to the real estate sector which is allegedly growing rapidly due to his political connections.

The growth of Lan's business empire is driven by taking on a large amount of debt through the commercial bond market. The company has issued 25 different series of bonds, which were aggressively sold through SCB, successfully raising funds of 30 trillion dong. However, the majority of its capital is obtained through bank loans.

Lan is suspected to control 91 percent of SCB, through 27 appointed individuals. Between February 2018 and October 2022, 93 percent of the loans were directed to VTP and its shell companies without collateral, payment schedule, or normal due diligence.

Lan has been suspected for at least five years, but was never arrested until 2022. There is no official explanation regarding the reason, but there are many suspicions that she has too much information about politicians involved in dubious businesses, taking advantage of Vietnam's rapidly developing real estate sector.