Trương Mỹ Lan

Trương Mỹ Lan (Vietnamese pronunciation: [t͡ɕɯɤŋ1 miːʔ4 lʷaːn1]; born 13 October 1956) is a Vietnamese businesswoman who founded the real estate development group Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, of which she is on the board of directors. A key figure in Vietnam's largest, multi-billion-dollar financial fraud, Lan was sentenced to death for embezzlement, 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 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. 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.