Born to a Chinese-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong Mai Lan started out as a market vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. She started buying land and property after the Communist Party introduced economic reform in 1986. Until the 1990s, it owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.
When she was found guilty and sentenced in April, she was the chairman of the prominent real estate firm Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in the “Burning Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-General Secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Chong.
All other 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced to life imprisonment, the rest received suspended terms of imprisonment from 20 to three years. Chiong Mai Lan’s husband and niece received nine and 17 years in prison, respectively.
The State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent many billions of dollars recapitalizing the Saigon Commercial Bank to prevent a wider banking panic. Prosecutors argued that her crimes were “egregious and unprecedented” and did not warrant leniency.
Lawyers for Chiong Mai Lan say she is working as fast as possible to find the $9 billion she needs. But cashing out its assets is proving difficult.
Some of them are high-end real estate in Vietnam’s capital, Ho Chi Minh City, which could theoretically be sold fairly quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other businesses or property projects.
In total, more than a thousand different assets related to the fraud were detected in the state. They are still frozen by the authorities. The BBC understands the tycoon has also contacted friends to raise loans for her to help meet the target.
