Vietnamese richest woman and real estate tycoon Zhang Meilan sentenced to death

Zhang Meilan (middle) on trial

Previously reported

Launching rapid economic growth is certainly not easy. Ensuring its healthy and stable growth, and continuous growth, is the credit of Lu Yao's knowledge of horsepower!

Article | Seafarers

The trial of Zhang Meilan, the richest woman in Vietnam and founder of the real estate company Wanshengfa Group, on suspicion of corruption, bribery, and fraud began on March 5th.

According to reports from Global Times, Vietnam News Agency and People's Daily, 67 year old she is afraid of facing the death penalty!

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What exactly is the situation?

According to relevant reports, this case involves nearly 90 defendants, including Zhang Meilan herself, who are accused of participating in embezzlement of $12 billion. If the facts are ultimately confirmed, it may become one of the largest financial fraud cases in Asia.

Uncle Hai would like to say that the biggest corruption case before was the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, which involved approximately $4.5 billion.

It can be seen that the funds involved in Zhang Meilan's case are more than twice and nearly twice as much. It's really amazing.

The case has been on trial for some time now. As early as October 8, 2022, Zhang Meilan was arrested by Vietnamese police. The Supreme People's Procuratorate of Vietnam has prosecuted the individuals involved on multiple charges, including the crime of embezzlement of property, bribery, and abuse of power in the performance of official duties.

These individuals include former public officials and other related personnel from Saigon Commercial Bank, National Bank of Vietnam, General Supervision Office of the Vietnamese Government, National Audit Office of Vietnam.

Of course, the most lamentable aspect of the data released by Vietnamese prosecutors is still the evidence of Zhang Meilan's own crime——

After the Vietnamese police arrested Zhang Meilan, the National Bank of Vietnam advised depositors not to withdraw funds early from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB)

She forged 916 loan documents and fraudulently obtained 304 trillion Vietnamese dong (approximately 12 billion US dollars) from Saigon Commercial Bank.

According to disclosure, the interest on this payment has reached at least 129.4 trillion Vietnamese dong so far.

Although after Zhang Meilan's arrest in October 2022, Saigon Commercial Bank announced at a relatively fast pace that Ms. Zhang Meilan would no longer serve as a director and executive officer of the bank, and advised Vietnamese media not to spread information to avoid panic, what the Vietnamese people saw was that the figure of 30.4 billion Vietnamese dong had already exceeded the market value of most commercial banks in Vietnam and reached 3% of Vietnam's 2022 GDP. If the Vietnamese people don't panic in their hearts, that's strange!

At the time of Zhang Meilan's arrest, not only were some banks facing runs, but the Vietnamese stock market also plummeted at one point. Undoubtedly, these are all normal responses of an economy to corruption issues.

The Vietnamese police have confirmed that there are as many as 42000 victims in this case. This large-scale fraud case shocked the entire country of Vietnam, causing hundreds of people to hold protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, it has also attracted the attention of Southeast Asian countries.

Wanshengfa Group, founded by Zhang Meilan, is located in an office building in Ho Chi Minh City

Zhang Meilan faces legal sanctions and may even be sentenced to death, but not all the individuals involved have been arrested and brought to justice. A total of 78 defendants appeared in court on March 5th, with 8 of them absconding. The police have issued international arrest warrants for the fugitives.

As seen by Uncle Hai, a report from the Yangcheng Evening News and the Yangcheng faction mentioned that two of the fugitives in this case are also of Chinese nationality.

"Up to 10 controllers and nearly 200 lawyers will participate in the trial. The police have sorted out a total of 6 tons of documents, packed in 104 boxes, with nearly 2500 documents and 1 million notes. The lawsuit is expected to continue until April 29th, which will be the longest trial in Vietnam's history," the relevant report wrote.

Hong Kong media also reported that after the Zhang Meilan incident, her husband Zhu Liji quickly sold properties in Hong Kong in a series.

Including hotels and luxury homes:

For example, the Yiluan Single Account Western style House was reported to have been sold for HKD 300 million,

The Central Yingzhi Building changed hands for HKD 6.4 billion,

There is also a selling price of HKD 430 million for the residential land in Yu Chung,

A hotel in North Point is priced at HKD 468 million, among others.

But whether such a sell-off will be used to repay debts and whether it will save Zhang Meilan's life remains to be seen from the final judgment of the Vietnamese court.

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The picture shows Ruan Chunfu, who resigned after the Zhang Meilan case. Image: Information

At present, of course, there is no evidence related to Ruan Chunfu's involvement in the Zhang Meilan case. But one thing to note:

Born in Guifu Township, Guishan County, Guangnan Province, Vietnam, Nguyen Chun Phu is known as the leader of the "Southern Faction" within the Communist Party of Vietnam. Its political foundation, or in other words, its main supporters are mostly from Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

Of course, based on the information currently circulating in the Vietnamese public security and legal system, the fact that Zhang Meilan committed illegal crimes is clear, and it is not just because she had a deep intersection with Nguyen Chun Phu that she was arrested.

It is a bit far fetched to say that Zhang Meilan was a victim of the struggle between the South and North factions of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

The reason for Ruan Chunfu's resignation is related to the corruption of his subordinates.

Vietnam's former Executive Vice Premier Fan Ping ming and former Vice Premier Wu De dan have been dismissed due to direct involvement in corruption!

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After Zhang Meilan's arrest, Vietnamese authorities released her portrait

Zhang Meilan, originally from Shantou, Guangdong, China, founded Wanshengfa Group, which covers real estate, transportation infrastructure, and more.

After his arrest, it was not until the Central Bank of Vietnam came forward to support him that the Vietnamese capital market was more or less stabilized. A company has encountered problems that have led to serious economic risks, which in Uncle Hai's view demonstrates the fragility of the Vietnamese economy.

Before the reform and opening up, Vietnam experienced several consecutive wars, with the main battlefield located within Vietnam's borders, which left Vietnam with a mess.

On this basis, Vietnam's reform and opening up naturally led to its rapid economic development. And the country is small, with relatively abundant human resources, close to the sea, and adjacent to China. These factors are all the advantages of Vietnam's economic development.

But the corruption problem that followed undoubtedly made the Vietnamese central government have to pay attention to it.   Since 2021, over 4400 people have been prosecuted in over 1700 corruption cases in Vietnam.

It can be seen that they believe that the problem of corruption is not the itch of scabies, but may easily affect Vietnam's entire national economy.

Let's see how Nguyen Phuc Trong has sorted out a more reasonable and healthy development path for the Vietnamese economy through the Zhang Meilan case.

Launching rapid economic growth is certainly not easy. Ensuring its healthy and stable growth, and continuous growth, is the credit of Lu Yao's knowledge of horsepower!