the queen of Vietnamese real estate sentenced to death

The trial of a banker, Truong My Lan, ended this week in Vietnam. She was sentenced to death for a gigantic fraud worth 11.6 billion euros. An emblematic story of the history of this country and its political and economic changes.

First of all, it is the rise of a businesswoman. Truong My Lan was born in 1956 in Saigon, in what was then South Vietnam. An authoritarian political regime at war against the North held by the communists. In this regime, the obsession with money is already massive and gives rise to the first anti-corruption program. In 1966 a show trial resulted in the execution of a trader accused of fraud.

But the South Vietnamese regime, despite American support, could not resist the offensive of the communist army of North Vietnam. In 1975, Saigon, the southern capital, was taken. The young Ms. Truong was then 19 years old. Saigon is renamed Ho Chi Minh City, named after the victor and the founder of the Vietnamese communist movement. It is the largest city in the country and still today its economic heart. It was there that Ms. Truong modestly began selling hair accessories. A small market which allows it to generate initial funds. The country is still very much marked by collectivization, but from 1986 Doi Moi, the policy of “renewal”, began. New opportunities are opening up. The goal is to get out of the planned economy.

Birth of “the queen of real estate”

This allows the young businesswoman to change sectors of activity. She began working in real estate, relying on political connections which eased her difficulties. Truong My Lan well represents these women who for decades have gained importance in the country’s economy and arouse trust because of their efficiency and reliability. In 1992, she was at the head of a real estate group which invested in luxury real estate and shopping centers, then hotels. Soon she was nicknamed “the queen of real estate”.

Twenty years later, the authorities called on her to restructure the banking sector, several establishments of which were in danger of bankruptcy. This is how she came to head the Saigon Commercial Bank of which, in theory, she could only hold 5% of the capital. But secretly, it creates shell companies and uses front men to hold almost the entire capital of this financial power. And from there, she made fraudulent loans which allowed her to drain the savings of no less than 42,000 people. For ten years she prospered in this system which placed her at the heart of the Vietnamese elite.

A show trial

In 2016, a vast anti-corruption campaign was launched by the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong. An open investigation into economic and political officials takes several years and includes the activities of Truong My Lan. It led to her arrest in October 2022. No less than 85 people are targeted by this investigation, including her husband and her niece. His trial, which began last month, was described as the “trial of the century” by the Vietnamese and international press. The sums at stake represented 6% of the country’s GDP!

The death sentence of Ms. Truong My Lan must serve as an example of the fight against corruption. Already the president of the country, number 2 in the regime, had to resign over a fraud case. We find the good old communist system of show trials and witch hunts to eliminate figures that we consider cumbersome and embarrassing. Remember, these were already the same processes that were used by the Stalinists in the 1930s, the model regime of the Vietnamese communists.