The Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank in which Trương Mỹ Lan, chairwoman of Vạn Thịnh Phát group, owned a significant stake. She has been sentenced to death for financial frauds at the bank. — VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp

HCM CITY — Two foreigners are wanted by authorities for their alleged involvement in illegal cross-border transfers of US$4.5 billion related to Vạn Thịnh Phát group and its chairwoman, Trương Mỹ Lan.

Chen Yi Chung and Chiu Bing Keung Kenneth, former executives of Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), have fled the country after assisting Lan, currently on death row for financial fraud, effect the transfers.

A police investigation found Lan and her accomplices illegally moved over $4.5 billion (VNĐ107 trillion) and laundered VNĐ445 trillion over a decade.

Chung and Kenneth managed 11 subsidiaries of Vạn Thịnh Phát and assisted Lan in moving over VNĐ50 trillion into and out of the country, according to the police.

Chung and Kenneth helped transfer VNĐ16 trillion and VNĐ34 trillion by faking contracts and agreements with foreign companies, the police said.

Their current whereabouts are unknown.

Lan is the mastermind behind the largest financial fraud in the country, involving asset misappropriation, illegal currency transfers and money laundering, the police said.

She did not hold any position at SCB but owned over 90 per cent of it directly and through others, and a court found her guilty of manipulating the bank’s operations to borrow money and fund Vạn Thịnh Phát’s operations.

The police have also uncovered a scheme involving Vạn Thịnh Phát, Tân Việt Securities and SCB and orchestrated by Lan to issue fake bonds to deceive investors, mostly SCB depositors.

The 1,000-odd fake companies under the Vạn Thịnh Phát group carried out fraudulent bond issuances worth some VNĐ30 trillion ($1.24 billion) and sold them to over 35,000 victims, the police said.

She has admitted her wrongdoing and promised to repay the victims, they said.

They have seized substantial assets linked to the scam worth billions of dollars, including shares in various companies and properties, and are seeking to recompense the victims.

At her trial in April, Lan received the death penalty for financial fraud at SCB and was also ordered to pay compensation of VNĐ673.8 trillion ($27 billion) to the bank.

Other bank executives and state officials involved in the scandal received various sentences ranging from three years to life for embezzlement and violating banking regulations.

The arrest of Lan and her associates is part of a broader anti-corruption campaign aimed at cleaning up the banking sector.

In 1992 she and her family founded Vạn Thịnh Phát, one of the country’s most prominent real estate companies.

While her arrest has exposed the massive scale of the fraud, experts have warned that the scandal is just the “tip of the iceberg” in the financial sector.

The Government has blamed the Ministry of Finance and the central bank for their poor management of the sector that led to the scams.

It has tightened bank ownership regulations and called for increased oversight to preclude future scandals. — VNS