Van Thinh Phat's 'huge' ecosystem
Ms. Truong My Lan (1956) founded Van Thinh Phat Company Limited in 1992, initially operating in the fields of trade and restaurant - hotel business. Later, the company expanded to Van Thinh Phat Group, operating in the field of real estate business with many restaurants, hotels, office buildings and apartment buildings.
After many years, Ms. Truong My Lan has created an "ecosystem" of Van Thinh Phat with a series of subsidiaries, typically: Van Thinh Phat Joint Stock Company, An Dong Investment Joint Stock Company, Time Square Investment Joint Stock Company, Saigon Peninsula Group Company,...
This is a group of companies specializing in real estate investment. Since its inception (2007), these businesses have been said to be related to the shareholder group of Saigon Bank (SCB) and VIPD Group.
The common feature of this group is that they have "super-huge" registered charter capital, all above and below 10,000 billion VND.
Van Thinh Phat has two large projects: An Dong Commercial Hotel - Windsor Plaza Hotel, and Sherwood Residence luxury apartment building.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Truong My Lan is known as the "boss" of "huge" real estate projects located in many of the most prime locations in Saigon such as Times Square, VTP Office Building, Duxton Hotel, Union Square...
In addition, Van Thinh Phat also owns a series of other super projects such as: Bonville Land Residential Area, Sterling Residence Luxury Residential Area, Lambert Residence Luxury Apartment Area, Thuan Kieu Plaza; Central Nguyen Hue Coffee Restaurant, Huu Nghi Restaurant and Duc Bao Restaurant, all located in the center of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
For a long time, Van Thinh Phat was ranked among the largest and most mysterious family businesses in Vietnam. News about the company's leaders was very little and they had almost no contact with the media.
Information about Van Thinh Phat became more widely known after the wedding between Truong Hue Van - the fourth generation businesswoman of the Truong family - and singer and musician Thanh Bui at the end of 2013.
In 2022, Van Thinh Phat was mentioned a lot in the press for its role related to 2 companies that won the land auction in Thu Thiem.
Specifically, Sheen Mega JSC won the auction for lot 3-8 at a price of 4,000 billion VND and Dream Republic JSC bought lot 3-5 at a price of 3,820 billion VND. However, these two companies also "followed" Tan Hoang Minh in canceling their deposits after winning the auction for Thu Thiem land.
The most prominent in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem is a group of financial institutions, including SCB Bank, Tan Viet Securities Company, and Viet Vinh Phu Financial Investment Joint Stock Company. SCB Bank is considered the main organization providing capital to businesses in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem.
Ms. Truong My Lan regularly holds 80-90% of SCB Bank's shares by having someone else own the shares and has a decisive voice at this bank with assets of more than half a million billion VND.
Ms. Truong My Lan and the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem withdrew money from SCB through real estate businesses, restaurants, hotels; through ghost companies, ghost projects with assets that did not meet legal conditions, assets with inflated values...
In addition, Ms. Truong My Lan also has a network of many shell companies in "tax haven" territories and countries.
According to the investigation conclusion of the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Agency, during its operation, Van Thinh Phat Group has built a Van Thinh Phat ecosystem with more than 1,000 enterprises including subsidiaries and member companies at home and abroad, with hundreds of individuals hired as legal representatives or relatives, officers and employees.
Series of scandals
Over the past decade, Van Thinh Phat has been considered one of the leading corporations in Vietnam in the field of real estate investment and business, with a very strong financial potential, regularly present in very large projects and famous acquisitions.
In addition to her reputation in business, this businesswoman has been mentioned many times in scandals.
In 2014, Ms. Truong My Lan was named by Mr. Duong Chi Dung at the trial of Mr. Duong Tu Trong, related to a high-ranking leader of the Ministry of Public Security.
In 2016, the press also mentioned Ms. Lan's name a lot because some characters in the "Panama Papers" had the same names as her and her husband. The "Panama Papers" were the biggest document leak in world history, revealing how the rich and powerful transferred money abroad from 1977 until the end of December 2015.
In 2017, the name Truong My Lan continued to cause a stir with the news that she and 9 other family members had applied to renounce their Vietnamese citizenship. Later, she and her relatives withdrew their applications and had their applications returned.
She was also a defendant in a debt collection lawsuit by a Hong Kong Vietnamese.
In 2022, Van Thinh Phat Group was named by the Government Inspectorate for violations in housing and land conversion projects in Ho Chi Minh City.
In October 2022, businesswoman Truong My Lan - Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group - was prosecuted and temporarily detained by the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency to investigate the crime of fraud and property appropriation.
Initial investigation results determined that the defendants had committed fraudulent acts in illegally issuing and trading bonds to appropriate thousands of billions of dong from the people in 2018-2019.
During this period, some companies in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem such as Norah Interior Design and Decoration JSC and An Dong Investment Group JSC (investor of An Dong Commercial Hotel) quietly raised bonds worth tens of thousands of billions of VND (equivalent to billions of USD). Many bonds were advised to be issued by Tan Viet Securities JSC (TVSI), guaranteed by SCB Bank. Some had no guarantee or collateral.
Many businesses in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem have Chinese leaders/former leaders such as Norah, Saigon Pearl Investment...
Van Thinh Phat is also believed to be related to a mysterious group of Chinese shareholders who have been acquiring prime land in Ho Chi Minh City, such as the case of 6,000 square meters at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) after being exposed in a State Audit report related to the management and use of state capital and assets in 2016 by Sabeco.
On November 17, Ms. Lan was proposed by the Investigation Police Agency (Ministry of Public Security) to be prosecuted for three crimes: Bribery, Violation of regulations on banking activities and Embezzlement of assets. Ms. Lan was accused of controlling the operations of SCB Bank to appropriate VND304,096 billion - about USD12.4 billion.
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