A Vietnamese billionaire's luxury cars and handbags are being auctioned off to repay victims of a massive $44 billion scam. But the money raised is just a drop in the ocean compared to the huge amount she still owes.
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are auctioning off the fancy belongings of Truong My Lan, the Vietnamese billionaire who masterminded one of the world's biggest financial scams. They are selling her luxury cars, designer handbags, and even a yacht. But here's the catch: even though they are raising a lot of money, reports say it's not even a small fraction of the massive amount she owes her victims.
Truong My Lan, who is 69, is in jail for cheating one of Vietnam's biggest banks out of a staggering $44 billion. The court has given her two life sentences for this. Now, they are selling her assets to pay back the people she scammed.
Just last week, they sold two of her famous Hermès Birkin handbags in an online auction for $539,000. Apparently, she had bought one bag in Italy, and a Malaysian businessman had gifted her the other. Lan had requested the court to let her keep the bags as a memory for her children and grandchildren, but the court said no. They also auctioned off three of her luxury cars. One of them sold for about $630,000. A BMW and a Lexus were also sold.
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The problem is, Lan still has to return $27 billion to the victims. Her lawyer has said that the money from the auction will first be used to cover court and auction expenses. So far, Lan has only managed to pay back a mere $455,000.
It's not all going smoothly, either. Her luxury boat, 'The Reverie Saigon', was put up for auction for $2 million, but nobody came forward to buy it. They even dropped the price by 18%, but still no takers. Some of her other assets have been put up for auction more than ten times without finding a buyer.
Lan ran her massive scam using her real estate empire as a cover. She created fake companies and paid crores in bribes to officials to get away with it. In 2024, a court had actually sentenced her to death. The court said her sentence could be reduced if she paid back at least three-quarters of the stolen money. However, last year, Vietnam removed the death penalty for some economic crimes. That's how Lan's sentence was changed to life imprisonment. On top of that, she has another life sentence for money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers.
