The Associated Press reported on April 11 that Vietnam's richest woman, real estate developer Truong My Lan, 67, was sentenced to death by a court on charges of defrauding the country of $12.5 billion, the country's largest-ever financial fraud., making it the largest financial fraud case in the country's history.
Zhang Meilan was born into a Vietnamese-Chinese business family with ancestral roots in Shantou, China.
She is the founder and chairwoman of Vietnam's VTP Group. She established the VTP Group in 1992, engaging in various businesses including real estate, finance, catering, and hotels. Some of her notable properties include the Saigon Times Square in Ho Chi Minh City and the Windsor Hotel, which hosted the APEC summit in 2006.
The trial is the most dramatic chapter so far in the "Fiery Furnace" anti-corruption campaign led by Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee. The campaign has already forced the resignation of two presidents and two deputy prime ministers, and resulted in hundreds of officials being punished or jailed.
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