HCMC – Truong My Lan, founder and chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group Corporation, a Vietnamese diversified investment group, has been prosecuted and detained for allegedly appropriating assets.

Ministry of Public Security investigators filed charges against her today, October 8, said Lieutenant General To An Xo, office chief and spokesperson of the ministry. The investigators also searched the house and workplace of the Van Thinh Phat chairwoman. Besides, the investigators pressed the same charges against three others linked to the HCMC-based company. They are Truong Hue Van, aged 34, general director of Windsor Property Management Group Corporation; Nguyen Phuong Hong, aged 38, an assistant at Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group Corporation; Ho Buu Phuong, aged 50, former board chairman at Tan Viet Securities Joint Stock Company and former deputy general director for finance at Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group Corporation. According to the investigators, Lan and the accomplices have allegedly committed fraud in the issuance and trading of bonds in order to appropriate thousands of billions of Vietnam dong of investors in the 2018-2019 period. Lan, aged 66, is also known as Truong Muoi. She is a businesswoman and a Chinese-Vietnamese billionaire. Her husband is a real estate entrepreneur in Hong Kong, the local media reported. In 1992, Lan established Van Thinh Phat Co., Ltd. operating in the fields of commerce and hospitality, which then expanded to the real estate sector. Van Thinh Phat is the owner of a host of major projects and buildings in prime locations in HCMC.