More than 1,000 'ghost' companies in the ecosystem of Van Thinh Phat Group
The Van Thinh Phat Group ecosystem has thousands of "ghost" companies established by Ms. Truong My Lan to take out fake loans, transfer shares, and use legal entities to contribute capital to invest in projects.
According to the investigation results, Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Van Thinh Phat Group) and her accomplices caused damage to SCB Bank of nearly 200 trillion VND.
To serve her illegal work, Ms. Truong My Lan established and built more than 1,000 enterprises including subsidiaries and member companies at home and abroad, divided into many layers (abbreviated as Van Thinh Phat ecosystem), in which Van Thinh Phat Group plays a central role, holds shares, controls all operations of companies in the ecosystem and usually does not directly participate in business activities.
Chairman of Van Thinh Phat hired hundreds of individuals to act as legal representatives of the companies, divided into 4 main groups with close relationships with each other.
The group of financial institutions in Vietnam includes: SCB Bank, Tan Viet Securities Company, Viet Vinh Phu Financial Investment Joint Stock Company (Viet Vinh Phu Company). In which, SCB Bank plays a particularly important role, used as a financial tool to provide capital to companies in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem.
The other group is companies with business operations in Vietnam, mostly operating in the business sector.real estate, restaurants, hotels... These are all companies with large charter capital, holding controlling shares in subsidiaries and member companies such as: Saigon Peninsula Group Joint Stock Company with charter capital of 18,000 billion VND, An Dong Investment Group Joint Stock Company (An Dong Company) with charter capital of 9,000 billion VND...
In particular, the investigation results determined that in the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem, there are thousands of companies that do not operate in production or business ("ghost" companies) established by Ms. Truong My Lan to serve as the name of fake loans, transfer shares and use legal entities to contribute capital to invest in projects.
In addition, Ms. Truong My Lan also built a network of many shell companies in territories and countries, doing business abroad or using the name of "foreign investor" to hold shares and manage her family's capital and assets abroad.
Van Thinh Phat Group was established and first operated on June 19, 1992. As of August 2020, the group has undergone 52 changes in business registration information, with a charter capital of VND 13,000 billion. The legal representative and General Director is Truong Hue Van (granddaughter of Ms. Truong My Lan).
The Group has 4 main shareholders: Ms. Truong My Lan with 60% of capital; Ms. Lan's 2 daughters, Elizabeth Chu Yuet Han (Chu Duyet Hang) and Mary Chu Yuet Fan (Chu Duyet Phan), each owns 10% of capital; Emerald Joint Stock Company, represented by Truong Hue Van, owns 20% of capital.
Van Thinh Phat Group owns a series of real estate properties located in "golden" locations in Ho Chi Minh City such as Times Square, VTP Office Building, Duxton Hotel, Union Square, An Dong Commercial Hotel - Windsor Plaza Hotel, and Sherwood Residence luxury apartment complex.
In addition, Van Thinh Phat also owns a series of other super projects such as: Bonville Land Residential Area, Sterling Residence Luxury Residential Area, Lambert Residence Luxury Apartment Area, Thuan Kieu Plaza, Central Nguyen Hue Coffee Restaurant, Huu Nghi Restaurant, Duc Bao Restaurant...