How an Infamous Vietnamese Businesswoman Engineered a $12 Billion Fraud

Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts Radio News. Boivang Yoon worked as a personal driver for one of Vietnam's wealthiest tycoons. Most days, his job was to drive his boss, six to eight-year-old businesswoman Dung Lee Lang around bustling Ho Chi Minh City. And occasionally, she would ask him to run other errands, like picking things up for her or delivering packages. And a lot of times, these errands involved moving cash around the city. She would basically say, I have money this afternoon at the bank, go get it. That's John Pedro, Bloomberg's Vietnam beer chief. These were bundles of cash, just big bundles of cash. And he would go pick it up, and he would either take it to her apartment or her real estate company or whatever entity she wanted. And sometimes she would give him tips, as much as like $200 for Trippy Made. And the driver kept detailed notes about each cash run he made for her. He meticulously wrote down every Trippy Made. Now moving big stacks of cash around the city like this isn't unusual in Vietnam. You have to remember Vietnam for decades has been a cash-based society. And it still is not unusual to see people hauling big sacks of cash to and from the banks. And people do this. They'll even put them on motorbikes. They'll be carting tens of thousands of dollars on a motorbike going to and from the banks.

彭博音频工作室。播客广播新闻。Boivang Yoon曾是越南最富有的富豪之一的私人司机。他的大部分工作是开车带他的老板——六至八岁的女企业家Dung Lee Lang——在繁忙的胡志明市四处奔走。偶尔，她还会让他跑其他差事，比如帮她买东西或者送包裹。很多时候，这些差事涉及在城市中运送现金。彭博社越南分社负责人John Pedro说，她通常会说：“我下午在银行有钱，你去取吧。”这些都是一捆一捆的大笔现金。他会去取，然后送到她公寓、她的房地产公司或她想要的任何地方。有时候，她会给他小费，一次差事可能多达200美元。这位司机对每次为她取现金的经历做了详细记录。他认真地写下了他完成的每次差事。在越南，这种在城市中搬运大笔现金的做法并不罕见。你得记住，越南几十年来一直是一个以现金为主的社会。至今，在银行之间来回运送大量现金仍不算稀奇。人们甚至常常将大笔现金装在摩托车上，来回运送几万美元。

What was unusual was just how much cash the driver is transporting for his boss. She was using him to shepherd a lot of money, more than $4 billion over the span of three and a half years. His last drop off was in September 2022. And a month later, his employer Lang was arrested. She was accused of masterminding one of the world's biggest frauds, a massive $12.3 billion scam. It was the largest financial fraud case Vietnam has ever seen. And it's even more than the sandbank been freed Casey United States. A key piece of evidence in the trial, the detailed notes Lang's driver had kept of every stash of cash he delivered. Today, Lang is facing even more charges in a second case that includes money laundering and illegally transporting about $4.5 billion across the border.

这段文字翻译成中文是： 不同寻常之处在于司机为老板运送了大量现金。她利用他在三年半的时间里运输超过40亿美元。最后一次交钱是在2022年9月，一个月后，他的雇主Lang被捕。她被指控策划了世界上最大的欺诈案之一，这是一项高达123亿美元的庞大骗局。这是越南有史以来最大的金融诈骗案，比美国的Sandbank案还要大。审判中的关键证据是Lang的司机保存的详细记录，上面记载了他运送的每笔资金。如今，Lang在第二起案件中面临更多指控，其中包括洗钱和非法跨境运输约45亿美元。

The news about her current trial, which involves 33 other co-defendants, is widely broadcasted. And it's become a centerpiece in the government's anti-corruption campaign. And I don't think Vietnamese have seen anything like this before. And the government has been exceedingly open in talking about how they're going after this corruption. Welcome to the Big Tech Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Juan Ha. Every week we take you inside some of the world's biggest and most powerful economies, and the markets, tycoons and businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today on the show, the downfall of Vietnam's most infamous business woman. How she was able to embezzle so much money for so long. And what her multi-billion dollar fraud case means for Vietnam's fast-growing economy. During me, Lang's rise is Vietnamese rags to riches story.

关于她当前审判的新闻，涉及33名共同被告，被广泛报道。这已成为政府反腐运动的重点。我认为越南人以前从未见过这样的事情。政府在讨论他们如何打击腐败方面非常开放。欢迎来到彭博新闻的《亚洲大科技》，我是Juan Ha。每周我们都会带您深入了解一些全球最大和最有影响力的经济体，以及推动这个不断变化地区的市场、巨头和企业。今天的节目，我们聚焦越南最臭名昭著的女企业家的垮台。她是如何长期挪用如此多的钱，以及她的数十亿美元欺诈案件对越南快速发展的经济意味着什么。Lang的崛起是越南的一个草根成功故事。

Known in business circles as Madam Lang, she got her start in the late 1980s, selling makeup and hair accessories from her family stall inside the sprawling Ben-Pun market, right in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. It's a huge cavernous indoor market, but it's just jam-packed with people and vendors. That's a hard life. They work seven days a week. This was a time of rapid change in Vietnam. After the end of the war with United States, the country reunified under communism, but was financially ruined and internationally isolated.

在商业圈中被称为朗女士的她，起初是在1980年代末开始创业的。当时她在胡志明市中心庞大的Ben-Pun市场里，经营家族小摊位，销售化妆品和发饰。这个市场规模庞大，室内空间广阔，但拥挤不堪，到处是人和商贩。这样的生活非常艰辛，他们一周工作七天。那时候正值越南发生快速变革时期。与美国的战争结束后，国家在共产主义下实现重新统一，但经济严重衰退，在国际上也被孤立。

To jumpstart the economy, the Communist Party Vietnam started a series of market reforms in 1986, and Lang saw opportunity. She met her husband. He is a Hong Kong businessman, and together the two of them, they could see where the country was going and they started buying up a lot of land. Quite cheaply, and that was the beginning of her property empire. In 1991, Lang founded a real estate company that rapidly became one of the country's premium property firms. She built up a large property portfolio of hotels, restaurants, residential buildings, office buildings, and a lot of them become among the most prestigious properties in Ho Chi Minh City. Anything that we'd recognize today?

为了刺激经济增长，越南共产党在1986年启动了一系列市场改革，郎看到了这个机会。她认识了她的丈夫，他是一位香港商人。两人都能看到国家的发展方向，并开始大量购置土地，那时候价格还很便宜，这就是她房地产帝国的开端。1991年，郎创办了一家房地产公司，并迅速成为该国顶级房地产公司之一。她积累了大量的物业组合，包括酒店、餐馆、住宅楼和办公楼，其中很多都成了胡志明市最有声望的物业。有什么是我们今天能认出来的吗？

Well, if you were to come here and you were to visit the Rivery Saigon Hotel, which is right in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, you would see a very opulent facility. You're talking about her crown jewel. It has gold plated elevators, chandeliers. The two top end suites have prices that start at 12,000 a night. Oh my gosh, what crazy opulence if you're going to afford it? The thing is, this opulent structure really isn't far from the marketplace where it all began for her, but truly it is a world away.

如果你来到这里，去参观位于胡志明市市中心的西贡河酒店，你会看到一个非常奢华的场所。这家酒店是她的“皇冠上的明珠”，有镀金的电梯、华丽的吊灯。两间顶级套房的价格每晚起步价是12,000美元。天哪，这种奢华真是令人难以置信，如果你能负担得起的话。值得注意的是，这座奢华的建筑距离当初的一间市场并不远，但实际上却像是两个截然不同的世界。

For a lot of the vendors now in that marketplace, they view her as kind of this Vietnamese fairy tale. This woman who literally rose from nothing or just like them, living life, just like them to being one of the most prestigious and wealthiest women in Vietnam. By 2011, Lang had established herself as a prominent businesswoman in Ho Chi Minh City. That year, she arranged the merger of three small and struggling banks into a larger entity, the Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB. The bank became the fifth largest lender in Vietnam. The bank would also come to be at the center of one of the world's biggest fraud cases.

对许多现在在那个市场中的商家来说，他们把她视为一种越南的童话故事般的人物。这个女人从一无所有，或者就像他们一样的生活起步，到成为越南最有声望和最富有的女性之一。在2011年，郎在胡志明市确立了自己作为一名杰出女企业家的地位。那一年，她促成了三家小型困难银行的合并，成立了一个更大的实体，即西贡商业银行（SCB）。该银行成为了越南第五大贷款机构。与此同时，该银行也成为世界上最大诈骗案件之一的核心。

According to prosecutors, Lang illegally controlled more than 90% of the bank by paying people to acquire stakes in it. Then she built an ecosystem of companies, including ghost businesses, that she used to secure loans and register for collateral to withdraw money from the bank. Once the loans were approved, the money was either transferred to the bank accounts of these ghost firms and individuals, or directly picked up in cash. She essentially controlled 90% or more of the bank. She was also able to put in place trusted lieutenants to run the bank.

根据检察官的指控，Lang 通过花钱让他人购买股份，非法控制了该银行90%以上的股份。然后，她创建了一个由多家公司组成的生态系统，其中包括一些空壳公司，用来获取贷款和注册抵押品，从银行提取资金。这些贷款一旦获得批准，资金就会被转入这些空壳公司和个人的账户，或者直接以现金形式取走。她实际上控制了银行90%以上的股份，同时她还委任了可靠的助手来管理银行。

According to the police and prosecutors, this was essentially her own entity, and she could use it to bankroll the growth of her empire. So literally her own piggy bank. Exactly. On a late night in October 2022, Lang was arrested at her luxury apartment. Apparently she was getting ready for bed because when they took what the equivalent is for Vietnam at the mugshot, you can see she completely has no makeup on. And this was someone who was always known for being very coiffed and everything. It didn't take long for the word to spread, and it rattled the bank's customers. And the news was announced on a Saturday. The following Monday, there was a run on Saigon Commercial Bank. And why was that? People knew she was closely tied to Saigon Commercial Bank.

根据警方和检察官的说法，这实际上是她自己的实体，她可以利用它为自己的帝国发展提供资金。就像是她自己的存钱罐。没错。在2022年10月的一个深夜，Lang在她的豪华公寓被逮捕。显然，她当时正准备就寝，因为当他们拍下越南版的拘捕照时，你可以看出她完全没有化妆。而她是以时常装扮整齐闻名的。这一消息很快传播开来，震动了银行的客户。新闻是在一个星期六公布的。接下来的星期一，西贡商业银行发生了挤兑事件。为什么会这样？因为人们知道她与西贡商业银行关系密切。

Her real estate company was closely tied to this bank. There was panic. And so for several days, people were lining up, demanding their money out. The central bank governor repeatedly put out statements saying, your money is safe, your money is safe. And then eventually they took over the bank, essentially. They placed officials, other executives from other banks on the board to try to calm everything down. And eventually it did work. Around 36,000 bondholders have been identified as victims. Together, these people allegedly invested more than $1 billion through four companies linked to land. It touches a lot of the kind of average people, people putting their faith and trust and money in this bank. And a lot of them buying these bonds and then everything just blowing up. And so it's not just something that a bunch of wealthy people did to other wealthy people.

她的房地产公司与这家银行关系密切，因此引发了恐慌。接连几天，人们排着长队要求取回他们的钱。央行行长反复发表声明，表示“你们的钱是安全的，你们的钱是安全的”。最终，他们实际上接管了银行。他们委派其他银行的高管进入董事会，以平息事态。最终，这确实奏效了。大约36,000名债券持有人被确认为受害者。据称，这些人通过四家与土地相关的公司投资了超过10亿美元。这影响到了很多普通人，这些人对银行充满信任，将自己的钱投进去。他们中很多人购买了这些债券，结果一切都崩溃了。因此，这不仅仅是一小撮富人之间的问题。

After spending more than a year in detainment, Lang was sentenced to death by lethal injection in April. She was also convicted of bribing government officials to look the other way. Seventeen bank or financial inspectors were also convicted, including the former head of the state bank's inspection and supervision unit. That bank official was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of accepting as much as $5.2 million in bribes. But it didn't end there. This week, the Vietnamese court will issue another verdict on charges that Lang and others were involved in fraudulent asset appropriation, money laundering, and illegally transporting more than $4 billion across the border. But that trial means for Vietnam's growing economy and the government's efforts to crack down on corruption. That's after the break.

经过一年多的拘留，Lang在四月份被判处死刑，执行方式为注射死刑。她同时被判贿赂政府官员，以让他们对其非法活动视而不见。此外，还有十七名银行或金融监察人员被定罪，包括国家银行检察和监督部门的前负责人。这位银行官员因接受高达520万美元的贿赂被判终身监禁。但事情并没有就此结束。本周，越南法院将就Lang及其他人涉嫌欺诈性资产占用、洗钱以及非法跨境运输超过40亿美元的指控作出另一项判决。这场审判对于越南不断增长的经济和政府打击腐败的努力意味着什么。广告之后见分晓。

Vietnamese real estate tycoon Jung Meilang was given the death sentence for orchestrating one of the biggest fraud cases in the world. And months after her first trial, prosecutors filed new charges against her, along with 33 other defendants. They're being accused of laundering $18 billion, cross-border transportation of $4.5 billion and appropriating $1.2 billion from investors via bond issuances. Lang's second trial kicked off last month, and Bloomberg's Vietnam bureau chief John Boudreau says people regularly showed up to watch it on a giant screen out in front of the courthouse. They've set up a gigantic screen that usually people here use to watch football soccer. And then there's about 100 of these blue plastic stools. You'll have bondholders all sitting there watching this. And inside, of course, all the chairs, everything is full. One of the reasons why this case has gotten so much attention is because it's rattled so many ordinary Vietnamese. And the communist government is showcasing it as the kind of high-level corruption they say they want to stop. It really is endemic in the culture. From police officers taking bribes on the streets, to traffic police, to officials who will take money to ensure a project gets approved smoothly. It just becomes a way of doing things.

越南房地产大亨钟梅兰因策划世界上最大的欺诈案之一被判死刑。在她第一次受审几个月后，检察官对她和另外33名被告提出了新指控。他们被指控洗钱180亿美元、跨境运输45亿美元以及通过发行债券侵占投资者的12亿美元。钟梅兰的第二次庭审上个月开始，彭博社越南分社社长约翰·布德罗表示，人们经常出现在法庭前的巨型屏幕前观看审判。他们在这里设置了一个通常用于观看足球比赛的巨大屏幕，还有大约100个蓝色塑料凳子，债券持有人都坐在那里观看。而在法庭内，座位全部坐满。此案件引起如此多关注的原因之一是它让许多普通越南人感到震惊。而共产主义政府正将其展现为他们想要制止的高级腐败现象的一种典型。这种现象在文化中确实很普遍：从街头收受贿赂的警察、交警，到收钱确保项目顺利审批的官员，这几乎成为了一种行事方式。

Vietnam's late party chief, Nuan Fu Trong, who passed away this last summer, has for decades pursued anti-corruption. And he called it his blazing furnace campaign. He has long believed that the party's credibility is at risk if it doesn't root out high-level graft. And Lang was not the only one who got caught in the blazing furnace. The corruption fight has gone all the way up to the top, taking down three deputy prime ministers and two presidents. In just last year, officials launched corruption investigations into more than 2,000 individuals, nearly double from the previous year. And that's according to government data.

已故的越南党总书记阮富仲在今年夏天去世。几十年来，他一直致力于反腐败，并称其为“燃烧的火炉”运动。他一直认为，如果不清除高层腐败，党的信誉将面临风险。而且，朗并不是唯一一个在“燃烧的火炉”中被揪出的人。这场反腐斗争已经延续到最高层，扳倒了三位副总理和两位主席。据政府数据显示，仅去年一年，官员们就对2000多名个人展开了腐败调查，几乎是前一年的两倍。

But at the same time, critics say the probes who gets ensnared and the punishment involved are incredibly opaque. Their concerns, the campaign, has also been used as a political tool to get rid of rivals. And the anti-corruption drive has also created bottlenecks for investment. John says government sources told Bloomberg that they would rather do nothing than take a risk in approving projects and end up getting dragged into a future scandal. It has caused massive fear among government workers, bureaucrats. They're terrified that they approve Project A two years from now will the Ministry of Public Security come knocking on their doors and say, we're investigating your approval of this project.

同时，批评者表示，这些调查的目标和惩罚的过程非常不透明。他们担心，这场行动也被用作排除异己的政治工具。而反腐运动还导致了投资的瓶颈。据约翰说，政府消息人士告诉彭博社，他们宁愿什么都不做，也不愿冒险批准项目，最终被卷入未来的丑闻。这在政府工作人员和官僚中引发了巨大的恐慌。他们担心，如果他们批准了某个项目，两年后公共安全部会不会登门调查他们的批准决策。

For now, foreign investors are undeterred by projects slowing down. Investments are still pouring into Vietnam at record levels, capitalizing on the country's low labor costs and established supply chains. It's Vietnam's economic rise that catapult Lang into one of the country's richest tycoons. And now her spectacular fall is riveting Vietnam. As this episode airs, Lang is still awaiting the courts verdict in her second trial. She's facing a life sentence on top of already being on death row. Lang has denied some of the charges and is appealing her death sentence.

目前，尽管一些项目进展缓慢，但外国投资者并未因此却步。投资仍然以创纪录的水平涌入越南，利用该国低廉的劳动力成本和成熟的供应链。正是越南的经济崛起让朗成为了该国最富有的富豪之一。而现在她的戏剧性衰落正引起越南的广泛关注。在这一集播出时，朗的第二次审判仍在等待法院的判决。她面临终身监禁的判决，而她已经被判了死刑。朗否认了一些指控，并正在对死刑判决提出上诉。

Even if she wins her appeal to overturn the death sentence, she's likely facing a lifetime behind bars. In court, Lang broke down and said she never expected her life to end up this way. And she's prepared to take responsibility. Through tears, she said, that's her destiny.

即使她在上诉中成功推翻死刑判决，她很可能也将面临终身监禁。在法庭上，Lang 情绪崩溃，她表示从未料到自己的人生会变成这样。她准备承担责任，流着泪说，这就是她的命运。

This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wan Ha. This episode was produced by Naimi Ng, Yang Yang and Jessica Beck. It was mixed by Alex Sugiara and fact-checked by Edu Duann. It was edited by Caitlin Kenney, Aaron Edwards and Emily Cadman. There was additional reporting by Philip Hyman's with assistance from Wing Zung Kwan and Wing Zu Thu Nguyen. Naimi Shaven is our senior producer. Elizabeth Ponzo is our senior editor. Nicole Beamsterbauer is our executive producer. And Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Please follow and review the Big Take Asia wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps new listeners find the show. See you next time.

这是彭博新闻的"亚洲大播"节目。我是Wan Ha。本期节目由Naimi Ng、杨阳和Jessica Beck制作。混音由Alex Sugiara完成，事实核查由Edu Duann进行。剪辑由Caitlin Kenney、Aaron Edwards和Emily Cadman负责。Philip Hyman进行了额外报道，Wing Zung Kwan和Wing Zu Thu Nguyen提供了协助。Naimi Shaven是我们的高级制片人，Elizabeth Ponzo是我们的高级编辑，Nicole Beamsterbauer是我们的执行制片人，Sage Bauman是彭博的播客负责人。请在您收听播客的地方关注并评价"亚洲大播"。这样有助于新听众发现我们的节目。下次见。