Vietnam has been rocked by a scandal in which the chairwoman of major property developer Van Thinh Phat is accused of embezzling $12.5 billion from a bank "for personal purposes".
Truong My Lan will be tried at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, the government website reported, without specifying when the trial would start.
Here's what we know about the businesswoman at the centre of the $12.5 billion fraud:
1.) Truong My Lan is accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from Saigon Commercial Bank, where she held more than 90 percent of the bank's shares, according to the government website.
"From February 9, 2018 to October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan gave orders to set up 916 fake loan applications, appropriating more than 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) from SCB," it said.
2.) She will be prosecuted for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations. Eighty-five others, including a former official at the State Bank of Vietnam who is accused of accepting $5.2 million in bribes, will also face trial at the court in Ho Chi Minh City.
3.) Truong My Lan's family is one of the richest in Vietnam.
4.) Founded in 1992, Van Thinh Phat owns high-end hotels, restaurants, and luxury apartments, and has also invested in financial services.
5.) The value of Truong My Lan's alleged asset appropriation is equivalent to around three percent of Vietnam's total GDP for 2022.
6.) In 2011, three small commercial banks faced insolvency. The banks had many things in common: they lent most of their assets to a few players in the real estate sector, had lax internal controls, were awash with non-performing loans, and had experienced bank runs when key shareholders ran afoul of the law. Most importantly, all three banks were secretly controlled by Lan, through nominees, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
7.) The State Bank of Vietnam--the country's central bank--arranged for the three banks to be merged into SCB. There were, however, no legal consequences for Truong My Lan, possibly due to her political connections, the publication stated.
Vietnam has seen a sweeping government crackdown on corrupt officials and members of the country's business elite in recent years. The sweep has been driven by powerful Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, who last month demanded the purge press ahead "faster and in a more efficient manner".
More than 3,500 people have been indicted across more than 1,300 graft cases since 2021.
(With inputs from AFP)
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