Hanoi, Vietnam:

The chairwoman of main property developer Van Thinh Phat will go on trial in Vietnam, accused with accomplices of embezzling $12.5 billion from a financial institution “for private functions”, the official authorities web site mentioned.

Truong My Lan will probably be tried on the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Individuals’s Courtroom, the web site reported Sunday, with out specifying when the trial would begin.

She will probably be prosecuted for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking laws.

Lan is accused of organising Faux Mortgage Functions to withdraw cash from Saigon Business Financial institution, the place she held greater than 90 p.c of the financial institution’s shares, in keeping with the federal government web site.

“From February 9, 2018, to October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan gave orders to arrange 916 faux mortgage functions, appropriating greater than 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) from SCB,” it mentioned.

Eighty-five others, together with a former official on the State Financial institution of Vietnam who’s accused of accepting $5.2 million in bribes, can even face trial on the courtroom in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis.

Based in 1992, Van Thinh Phat owns high-end resorts, eating places, and luxurious residences, and has additionally invested in monetary companies.

The worth of Lan’s alleged asset appropriation is equal to round three p.c of Vietnam’s whole GDP for 2022.

Vietnam has seen a sweeping authorities crackdown on corrupt officers and members of the nation’s enterprise elite in recent times.

The sweep has been pushed by highly effective Communist Celebration Secretary Normal Nguyen Phu Trong, who final month demanded the purge press forward “sooner and in a extra environment friendly method”.

Greater than 3,500 folks have been indicted throughout greater than 1,300 graft instances since 2021.

In November, prosecutors introduced expenses in opposition to Truong Quy Thanh, the top of Tan Hiep Phat Group — which makes a few of the nation’s hottest mushy drinks — for appropriating $31.5 million alongside along with his two daughters.

Do Anh Dung, chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh Group, is to be prosecuted for illegally buying $355 million in a bond sale to greater than 6,500 traders.

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)