The Trial of the Century: Vietnam’s $40 Billion Financial Fraud

Truong My Lan, who rose from a market stall cosmetic seller to become a real estate tycoon, was convicted of orchestrating Vietnam's largest financial fraud by illegally controlling the Saigon Commercial Bank and funneling nearly 93% of its loans to her own shell companies. The scheme, which involved damages estimated between 6% and 10% of the country's GDP and the hoarding of over $4 billion in physical cash in her basement, caused a banking crisis that forced the government to inject $24 billion to save the lender. Although she was initially sentenced to death during the "Blazing Furnace" anti-corruption campaign, her sentence was reportedly commuted to life imprisonment following legal amendments and her desperate efforts to liquidate assets to repay the stolen funds.