Trương Mỹ Lan (; born 13 October 1956) is a Vietnamese businesswoman who founded the real estate development group , of which she is on the board of directors. A key figure in Vietnam's largest, multi-billion-dollar

financial fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover mone ...

, Lan was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for

embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

, bribery, and violations of banking regulations on 11 April 2024, before the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2025. In October 2022, she was arrested for using fake loan applications to

embezzle Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

more than US$12.5 billion from Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, which she controlled through more than two dozen middlemen. This caused a

bank run A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many Client (business), clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe Bank failure, the bank may fail in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking sys ...

. In March 2024 the trial for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations began. It is considered the largest corruption scandal in Southeast Asia's history. She was convicted and sentenced to death the following month. Her death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment in 2025, after Vietnam abolished the death penalty for embezzlement.

Early life and education

Trương Mỹ Lan was born on 13 October 1956, in

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

. Her family is of Teochew heritage, from the village of Gezhou () in

Shantou Shantou, Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 20 ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

; settling in "Little Gezhou" (), Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Her uncle founded the

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

business Hòa Thuận Phát () in

Chợ Lớn Chợ Lớn (, zh, 堤岸), usually anglicized as "Cholon" in English sources, is a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It lies on the west bank of the Saigon River, having Bình Tây Market as its central market. Chợ Lớn consists of the ...

Career

Lan originally owned a business for hair accessories in Ho Chi Minh City. Her connections to the government led her to enter the real estate business. In 1992, she founded and chaired the board of directors of ( zh, t=萬盛發集團), a real estate firm for luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels, and shopping centers and also financial services. From 2012 until 2022, Lan controlled Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), Vietnam's largest bank by assets in Ho Chi Minh City. SCB was established in 2012 from the merger of three banks facing bankruptcy in 2011; nevertheless, the

State Bank of Vietnam The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV; ) is the central bank of Vietnam. Organized as a Ministry (government department), ministry-level body under the Government of Vietnam, it is the sole issuer of the national currency, the Vietnamese đồng. As o ...

allowed the merger of these three banks, with Trương Mỹ Lan's continued control through more than two dozen middlemen, and 93 percent of loans going to her company and associated

shell companies A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. Shell companies were primarily vehicles for lawfully hiding the identity of their beneficial ...

Legal issues and convictions

2022 arrest

Lan was arrested on 6 October 2022 after years of investigation. She was accused of illegally issuing bonds worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars in 2018 and 2019 and using 916 fake loan applications to appropriate more than 304 trillion dong (US$12.5 billion) from Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, of which she owned more than 90 percent of the shares, from 9 February 2018 to 7 October 2022. After three SCB employees committed suicide, on 6, 9 and 14 October, a

ensued. The arrest and trial were considered part of the anti-corruption policy of leader

Nguyễn Phú Trọng Nguyễn Phú Trọng ( ; 14 April 194419 July 2024) was a Vietnamese politician and political theorist who served as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 2011 until his death in 2024. As the head of the party's Secretaria ...

, who described it as a "blazing furnace" ().

2024 trial

On 5 March 2024,

the trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

began at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. At US$12.5 billion, it is considered the largest corruption scandal in Southeast Asia; by comparison, the Malaysian 1MDB scandal in the 2010s involved €4.1 billion. Besides her husband and niece, there were 82 more defendants; "45 are former leaders of SCB, 15 former State Bank of Vietnam officers, three Government Inspectorate officers, and one former officer from the State Audit Office....Five of the former leaders of SCB are now in hiding." On 11 April 2024, Lan was sentenced to death by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

, for

. All the other defendants were also found guilty and given sentences ranging from three years (suspended) to life imprisonment. Her husband and niece were sentenced to nine and seventeen years respectively. On 19 September 2024, state media reported that a second trial had begun in which Lan and 33 other defendants were accused of money laundering and selling illegal bonds. The suit alleges that Lan illegally transferred US$4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022 using 21 companies controlled by Lan's real estate company. On 17 October, she was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on the said charges, alongside the death sentence she had already received. Lan lost her appeal against the death sentence on 3 December 2024; to avoid the death penalty and get the sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Lan must repay $11 billion, equivalent to three-quarters of the total amount she embezzled. On 21 April 2025, Lan's life sentence for "fraudulent appropriation of assets" was reduced to 20 years by an appeals court. However, as the death penalty she received has already taken legal effect, Lan is still subject to the death sentence. In May 2025, from prison, Lan sent a letter to the authorities requesting a reevaluation of her assets, which were being liquidated to comply with court orders. She claimed that the assessed value of VND 253.5 trillion was undervalued and asked to be allowed to participate in the asset valuation and handling process. Her stated goal was to maximize financial returns for the State.

2025 commutation of death sentence

On 25 June 2025, the death penalty was abolished for embezzlement, drug trafficking and several offences against the state. It was still retained for ten offences like murder, child rape, treason and terrorism. Additionally, it was decreed that for those sentenced to death prior to 1 July 2025 but have not yet been executed, their sentences would be commuted to life in prison. As a result of this legal change, Truong would have her death sentence commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

Personal life

Lan is married to Eric Chu Nap Kee ( zh, t=朱立基, ), a

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...

in the real estate sector in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. In March 2024, her husband was also summoned to the trial, as well as her niece Trương Huệ Vân, age 34, the CEO of a

property management Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and mon ...

firm, whose spouse is Vietnamese-Australian singer

Thanh Bùi North was an Australian boy band established in 2004. Popular primarily in Asia, the group had top ten singles in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India. Their debut single was a cover of Peter Cetera's " Glory of Love" whic ...

. Lan's family is one of the richest families in Vietnam. This money has been used to contribute to multiple projects in her ancestral hometown in China. Lan's embezzlement of $12.5 billion equals about three percent of Vietnam's total GDP for 2022. In March 2024, her niece, who had lived with her since childhood, admitted that she established 52 shell companies and four regular companies to obtain 155 loans at SCB.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truong, My Lan Vietnamese people of Chinese descent Vietnamese women in business Living people 1956 births Hoa people People convicted of embezzlement Vietnamese people convicted of corruption People convicted of bribery Prisoners sentenced to death by Vietnam Vietnamese prisoners sentenced to death Vietnamese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Women sentenced to death People from Saigon Fraudsters