Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Boivung You worked as
Speaker 1: a personal driver for one of Vietnam's wealthiest tycoons. Most days,
Speaker 1: his job was to drive his boss, sixty eight year
Speaker 1: old businesswoman during the Lang around bustling Ho Chiman City,
Speaker 1: and occasionally she would ask him to run other errands,
Speaker 1: like picking things up for her or delivering packages, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times these errands involved moving cash around
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 2: She would basically say, I have money this afternoon at
Speaker 2: the bank, Go get it.
Speaker 1: That's John Boudreaux, Bloomberg's Vietnam beer Chief.
Speaker 2: These were bundles of cash. There's big bundles of cash,
Speaker 2: and he would go pick it up and he would
Speaker 2: either take it to her apartment or her real estate
Speaker 2: company or whatever entity she wanted. And sometimes she'd give
Speaker 2: them tips as much as like two hundred dollars per tripping.
Speaker 1: And the driver kept detailed notes about each cash run
Speaker 1: he made for her.
Speaker 2: He meticulously wrote down every trip he made.
Speaker 1: Now, moving big stacks of cash around the city like
Speaker 1: this isn't unusual in Vietnam.
Speaker 2: You have to remember, Vietnam for decades has been a
Speaker 2: cash based society, and it still is not unusual to
Speaker 2: see people hauling big sacks of cash to and from
Speaker 2: the banks. And people do this. They'll even put them
Speaker 2: on motorbikes. They'll recording tens of thousands of the dollars
Speaker 2: on a motorbike going to and from the banks.
Speaker 1: What was unusual was just how much cash the driver
Speaker 1: is transporting for his boss.
Speaker 2: She was using him to shepherd a lot of money,
Speaker 2: more than four billion dollars over the span of three
Speaker 2: and a half years.
Speaker 1: His last drop off was in September twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: and a month later his employer, Lang was arrested. She
Speaker 1: was accused of masterminding one of the world biggest France
Speaker 1: a massive twelve point three billion dollars scam.
Speaker 2: It was the largest financial fraud case Vietnam has ever seen,
Speaker 2: and it's even more than the Sam Bankman freed casey
Speaker 2: United States.
Speaker 1: A key piece of evidence in the trial the detailed
Speaker 1: notes Lang's driver had kept of every stash of cash
Speaker 1: he delivered. Today, Lang is facing even more charges in
Speaker 1: a second case that includes money laundering and illegally transporting
Speaker 1: about four point five billion dollars across the border. The
Speaker 1: news about her current trial, which involves thirty three other
Speaker 1: co defendants, is widely broadcasted, and it's become a centerpiece
Speaker 1: in the government's anti corruption campaign.
Speaker 2: And I don't think Vietnamese have seen anything like this before,
Speaker 2: and the government has been exceedingly open and talking about
Speaker 2: how they're going after this corruption.
Speaker 1: Welcome to The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
Speaker 1: one High. Every week we take you inside some of
Speaker 1: the world's biggest and most powerful economies and the markets,
Speaker 1: tycoons and businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today
Speaker 1: on the show, the downfall of Vietnam's most infamous businesswoman,
Speaker 1: How she was able to embazzle so much money for
Speaker 1: so long, and what are multi billion dollar fraud case
Speaker 1: means for Vietnam's fast growing economy doing me Lang's Rise
Speaker 1: is a Vietnamese rags to richest story, known in business
Speaker 1: circles as Madame Lang. She got her start in the
Speaker 1: late nineteen eighties selling makeup and hair accessories from her
Speaker 1: family's stall inside the sprawling Benpunt market right in the
Speaker 1: heart of Hochiman City.
Speaker 2: It's a huge, cavernous indoor market that it is just
Speaker 2: jam packed with people and vendors. That's a hard life.
Speaker 2: They work seven days a week.
Speaker 1: This was a time of rapid change in Vietnam. After
Speaker 1: the end of the war with the United States, the
Speaker 1: country reunified under communism, but was financially ruined and internationally isolated.
Speaker 1: To jumpstart the economy, the Communist Party of Vietnam started
Speaker 1: a series of market reforms in nineteen eighty six, and
Speaker 1: Lang saw opportunity.
Speaker 2: She met her husband, he is a Hong Kong businessman,
Speaker 2: and together the two of them, they could see where
Speaker 2: the country was going, and they started buying up a
Speaker 2: lot of land quite cheaply, and that was the beginning
Speaker 2: of her property empire.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, Lang founded a real estate company
Speaker 1: that rapidly became one of the country's premium property firms.
Speaker 2: She built up a large property portfolio of hotels, restaurants,
Speaker 2: residential buildings, office buildings, and a lot of them become
Speaker 2: among the most prestigious properties in Hocheman City.
Speaker 1: Anything that we'd recognize today.
Speaker 2: Well, if you were to come here and you were
Speaker 2: to visit the Reverie Saigon Hotel, which is right in
Speaker 2: the center of Virtuman city, you would see a very
Speaker 2: opulent facility. You're talking about her crown jewel. It has
Speaker 2: gold plated elevators, chandeliers. The two top end suites have
Speaker 2: prices that start at twelve thousand a night.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what crazy opulence if you can afford it.
Speaker 2: And the thing is, this opulent structure is really isn't
Speaker 2: far from the marketplace where it all began for her,
Speaker 2: But truly it is a world away for a lot
Speaker 2: of the vendors now in that marketplace, they view her
Speaker 2: as kind of this Vietnamese fairy tale, this woman who
Speaker 2: literally wrote from nothing or just like them, living life
Speaker 2: just like them, to being one of the most prestigious
Speaker 2: and wealthiest women in Vietnam.
Speaker 1: By twenty eleven, Lang had established herself as a prominent
Speaker 1: businesswoman in Houchiman City. That year, she arranged the merger
Speaker 1: of three small and struggling banks into a larger entity,
Speaker 1: the Saigon Commercial Bank or SCB. The bank became the
Speaker 1: fifth largest lender in Vietnam. The bank would also come
Speaker 1: to be at the center of one of the world's
Speaker 1: biggest fraud cases. According to prosecutors, Lang illegally controlled more
Speaker 1: than ninety percent of the bank by paying people to
Speaker 1: acquire stakes in it. Then She built an ecosystem of companies,
Speaker 1: including ghost businesses, that she used to secure loans and
Speaker 1: register for collateral to withdraw money from the bank. Once
Speaker 1: the loans were approved, the money was either transferred to
Speaker 1: the bank accounts of these ghost firms and individuals, or
Speaker 1: directly picked up in cash.
Speaker 2: She essentially controlled ninety percent or more of the bank,
Speaker 2: and she was also able to put in place trusted
Speaker 2: lieutenants to run the bank. According to the police and prosecutors,
Speaker 2: this was essentially her own entity and she could use
Speaker 2: it to bankroll the growth of her empire.
Speaker 1: So literally her own piggybank exactly. On a late night
Speaker 1: in October twenty twenty two, Lang was arrested at her
Speaker 1: luxury apartment.
Speaker 2: Apparently she was getting ready for bed because when they
Speaker 2: took what the equivalent is for Vietnam at the mugshot
Speaker 2: that you can see she completely has no makeup on.
Speaker 2: And this was someone who's always known for being very
Speaker 2: koifed and everything.
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for the word to spread and
Speaker 1: it rattled the bank's customers.
Speaker 2: And the news was announced on a Saturday. The following Monday,
Speaker 2: there was a run on Saigon Commercial Bank and why
Speaker 2: was that people knew she was closely tied to Saigon
Speaker 2: Commercial Bank. Her real estate company was closely tied to
Speaker 2: this bank. There was panic, and so for several days
Speaker 2: people were lying up demanding their money out. The central
Speaker 2: bank governor repeatedly put out statements saying your money is safe,
Speaker 2: your money is safe, and then eventually they took over
Speaker 2: the bank. Essentially, they placed officials other executives from other
Speaker 2: banks on the board to try to calm everything down,
Speaker 2: and eventually it did work.
Speaker 1: Around thirty six thousand bondholders have been identified as victims. Together,
Speaker 1: these people allegedly invested more than one billion dollars through
Speaker 1: four companies linked to Lang.
Speaker 2: It touches a lot of the kind of your average
Speaker 2: people people putting their faith and trust and money in
Speaker 2: this bank, and a lot of them buying these bonds
Speaker 2: and then everything just blowing up them, and so it's
Speaker 2: not just something that a bunch of wealthy people did
Speaker 2: to other wealthy people.
Speaker 1: After spending more than a year in detainment, Lang was
Speaker 1: sentenced to death by lethal injection in April. She was
Speaker 1: also convicted of bribing government officials to look the other way.
Speaker 1: Seventeen bank or financial inspectors were also convicted, including the
Speaker 1: former head of the State Bank's Inspection and Supervision unit.
Speaker 1: That bank official was sentenced to life in prison after
Speaker 1: being found guilty of accepting as much as five point
Speaker 1: two million dollars in bribes. But it didn't end there.
Speaker 1: This week, the Vietnamese court will issue another verdict on
Speaker 1: charges that Lang and others were involved in fraudulent asset appropriation,
Speaker 1: money laundering, and illegally transporting more than four billion dollars
Speaker 1: across the border. What that trial means for Vietnam's growing
Speaker 1: economy and the government's efforts to crack down on corruption.
Speaker 1: That's after the break Vietnamese real estate tycoon Jumi Lang
Speaker 1: was given the death sentence for orchestrating one of the
Speaker 1: biggest fraud cases in the world, and months after her
Speaker 1: first trial, prosecutors filed new charges against her along with
Speaker 1: thirty three other defendants.
Speaker 2: They're being accused of laundering eighteen billion dollars, cross border,
Speaker 2: transportation of four point five billion dollars, and appropriating one
Speaker 2: point two billion dollars some investors via bond issuances.
Speaker 1: Lang's second trial kicked off last month, and Bloomberg's Vietnam
Speaker 1: Beer chief John Boudreau says people regularly showed up to
Speaker 1: watch it on a giant screen out in front of
Speaker 1: the courthouse.
Speaker 2: They've set up a gigantic screen that usually people here
Speaker 2: used to watch football soccer, and then there's about one
Speaker 2: hundred of these blue plastic stools. You'll have bondholders all
Speaker 2: sitting there watching this and inside, of course, all the chairs,
Speaker 2: everything is is full.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons why this case has gotten so
Speaker 1: much attention is because it's rattled so many ordinary Vietnamese,
Speaker 1: and the Communist government is showcasing it as a kind
Speaker 1: of high level corruption they say they want to stop.
Speaker 2: It really is endemic in the culture, from police officers
Speaker 2: taking bribes on the streets for general traffic police, two
Speaker 2: officials who will take money to ensure a project gets
Speaker 2: approved smoothly. It just becomes a way of doing things.
Speaker 2: Vietnam's late party chief Nuenfutrong, who passed away this last summer,
Speaker 2: has for decades pursued anti corruption, and he called it
Speaker 2: his Blazing Furnace campaign. He has long believed that the
Speaker 2: party's credibility is at risk if it doesn't root out
Speaker 2: high level graft.
Speaker 1: And Lang was not the only one who got caught
Speaker 1: in the blazing furnace. The corruption fight has gone all
Speaker 1: the way up to the top, taking down three Deputy
Speaker 1: Prime ministers and two present CIDs. In just last year,
Speaker 1: officials launched corruption investigations into more than two thousand individuals,
Speaker 1: nearly double from the previous year. That's according to government data.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, critics say the probes who
Speaker 1: gets ensnared and the punishment involved are incredibly opaque. There
Speaker 1: are concerns the campaign has also been used as a
Speaker 1: political tool to get rid of rivals, and the anti
Speaker 1: corruption drive has also created bottlenecks for investment. John says
Speaker 1: government sources told Bloomberg that they would rather do nothing
Speaker 1: than take a risk in approving projects and end up
Speaker 1: getting dragged into a future scandal.
Speaker 2: It has caused massive fear among government workers bureaucrats. They're
Speaker 2: terrified if they approve project A two years from now,
Speaker 2: will the Ministry of a Public Security come knocking on
Speaker 2: their doors and saying, we're investigating your approval of this project.
Speaker 1: For now now, foreign investors are undeterred by projects slowing down.
Speaker 1: Investments are still pouring into Vietnam at record levels, capitalizing
Speaker 1: on the country's low labor costs and established supply chains.
Speaker 1: It's Vietnam's economic rise that catapult Lang into one of
Speaker 1: the country's richest tycoons, and now her spectacular fall is
Speaker 1: riveting Vietnam. As this episode airs, Lang is still awaiting
Speaker 1: the court's verdict in her second trial. She's facing a
Speaker 1: life sentence on top of already being on death row.
Speaker 1: Lang has denied some of the charges and is appealing
Speaker 1: her death sentence. Even if she wins her appeal to
Speaker 1: overturn the death sentence, she's likely facing a lifetime behind bars.
Speaker 1: In court, Lang broke down and said she never expected
Speaker 1: her life to end up this way, and she's prepared
Speaker 1: to take responsibility through tears. She said, that's her destiny.
Speaker 1: This is the Big take Asia from Bloomberg News, I'm
Speaker 1: wan Ha. This episode was produced by Naming Young Young
Speaker 1: and Jessica Beck. It was mixed by Alex Suguiera and
Speaker 1: fact checked by Edu Duan. It was edited by Caitlin Kenney,
Speaker 1: Aaron Edwards, and Emily Cadman. There was additional reporting by
Speaker 1: Philip Hymns, with assistants from Wingsunquin and Wing Zuduin. Name me.
Speaker 1: Shaven is our senior producer, Elizabeth Ponso is our senior editor,
Speaker 1: Nicole Beemster Bower is our executive producer, and Sage Bowman
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Please follow and review The
Speaker 1: Big Take Asia wherever you listen to podcasts. It really
Speaker 1: helps me listeners find the show. See you next time.