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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityAsiaChinaIndiaTruong My Lan: Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for $44bn fraudPublished29 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Truong My Lan is accused of looting one of Vietnam’s largest banks over a period of 11 yearsBy Jonathan Head & Thu BuiIn BangkokIt was the most spectacular trial ever held in Vietnam, befitting one of the greatest bank frauds the world has ever seen. Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer was sentenced to death on Thursday for looting one of the country’s largest banks over a period of 11 years.The numbers involved are dizzying. Truong My Lan was convicted for taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors said $27bn may never be recovered.The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved. The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five defendants were tried with Truong My Lan, who denied the charges. “There has never been a show trial like this, I think, in the communist era,” says David Brown, a retired US state department official with long experience in Vietnam. “There has certainly been nothing on this scale.”The trial was the most dramatic chapter so far in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong. A conservative ideologue steeped in Marxist theory, Nguyen Phu Trong believes that popular anger over untamed corruption poses an existential threat to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. He began the campaign in earnest in 2016 after out-manoeuvring the then pro-business prime minister to retain the top job in the party. Image source, Getty ImagesThe campaign has seen two presidents and two deputy prime ministers forced to resign, and hundreds of officials disciplined or jailed. Now one of the country’s richest women has joined their ranks. Truong My Lan comes from a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. It has long been the commercial engine of the Vietnamese economy, dating well back to its days as the anti-communist capital of South Vietnam, with a large, ethnic Chinese community. She started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother, but began buying land and property after the Communist Party ushered in a period of economic reform, known as Doi Moi, in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.Although Vietnam is best known outside the country for its fast-growing manufacturing sector, as an alternative supply chain to China, most wealthy Vietnamese made their money developing and speculating in property. All land is officially state-owned. Getting access to it often relies on personal relationships with state officials. Corruption escalated as the economy grew, and became endemic. By 2011, Truong My Lan was a well-known business figure in Ho Chi Minh City, and she was allowed to arrange the merger of three smaller, cash-strapped banks into a larger entity: Saigon Commercial Bank. Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial. They accused her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers, and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.The amounts taken out are staggering. Her loans made up 93% of all the bank’s lending. Vietnam secret document warns of ‘hostile forces’Xi in Vietnam to rekindle a love-hate relationshipUS denies Cold War with China in historic Vietnam visitAccording to prosecutors, over a period of three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong, more than $4bn (£2.3bn) in cash from the bank, and store it in her basement. That much cash, even if all of it was in Vietnam’s largest denomination banknotes, would weigh two tonnes. She was also accused of bribing generously to ensure her loans were never scrutinised. One of those who was tried used to be a chief inspector at the central bank, who was accused of accepting a $5m bribe.The mass of officially sanctioned publicity about the case channelled public anger over corruption against Truong My Lan, whose haggard, unmade-up appearance in court was in stark contrast to the glamorous publicity photos people had seen of her in the past. But questions are also being asked about why she was able to keep on with the alleged fraud for so long.Image source, Getty Images”I am puzzled,” says Le Hong Hiep who runs the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Because it wasn’t a secret. It was well known in the market that Truong My Lan and her Van Thinh Phat group were using SCB as their own piggy bank to fund the mass acquisition of real estate in the most prime locations. “It was obvious that she had to get the money from somewhere. But then it is such a common practice. SCB is not the only bank that is used like this. So perhaps the government lost sight because there are so many similar cases in the market.”David Brown believes she was protected by powerful figures who have dominated business and politics in Ho Chi Minh City for decades. And he sees a bigger factor in play in the way this trial is being run: a bid to reassert the authority of the Communist Party over the free-wheeling business culture of the south.”What Nguyen Phu Trong and his allies in the party are trying to do is to regain control of Saigon, or at least stop it from slipping away. “Up until 2016 the party in Hanoi pretty much let this Sino-Vietnamese mafia run the place. They would make all the right noises that local communist leaders are supposed to make, but at the same time they were milking the city for a substantial cut of the money that was being made down there.”At 79 years old, party chief Nguyen Phu Trong is in shaky health, and will almost certainly have to retire at the next Communist Party Congress in 2026, when new leaders will be chosen. He has been one of the longest-serving and most consequential secretary-generals, restoring the authority of the party’s conservative wing to a level not seen since the reforms of the 1980s. He clearly does not want to risk permitting enough openness to undermine the party’s hold on political power. But he is trapped in a contradiction. Under his leadership the party has set an ambitious goal of reaching rich country status by 2045, with a technology and knowledge-based economy. This is what is driving the ever-closer partnership with the United States. Yet faster growth in Vietnam almost inevitably means more corruption. Fight corruption too much, and you risk extinguishing a lot of economic activity. Already there are complaints that bureaucracy has slowed down, as officials shy away from decisions which might implicate them in a corruption case.”That’s the paradox,” says Le Hong Hiep. “Their growth model has been reliant on corrupt practices for so long. Corruption has been the grease that that kept the machinery working. If they stop the grease, things may not work any more.”Related TopicsVietnamAsiaMore on this storyVietnam’s president out after just year in officePublished21 MarchPower shift in Vietnam as president quitsPublished17 January 2023Top StoriesBiden vows ‘ironclad’ support for Israel amid Iran attack fearsPublished10 minutes agoDazzling artwork found at ancient city of PompeiiPublished3 hours agoPressure grows to rethink rough sleeping clampdownPublished9 hours agoFeaturesHow gang violence gripped a tourist havenWhat is the minimum salary UK visa applicants need?Arizona pushes abortion to centre stage of 2024The Papers: ‘Iron clad’ Biden support and ‘radical NHS plan’All you need to know for tonight’s Bafta Games AwardsListen: How will Labour plug the gap in NHS funding?AttributionSoundsWas South Korea’s president thwarted by a spring onion?The Indian men traumatised by fighting for RussiaLocal elections 2024: Is there an election in my area?Elsewhere on the BBCA man from 1979 takes on the modern worldSurely things can’t have changed that much? 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[ad_1] Truong My Lan started life as a market trader. Now, she has been convicted of stealing billions.
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityNewsbeatBeyoncé: Renaissance star loved country music as a baby, dad revealsPublished3 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Beyoncé’s highly anticipated new album is due to be released next monthBy Luke Wolstenholme & Riyah CollinsBBC NewsbeatIn case you’ve been living under a rock, Beyoncé is releasing country music and it’s already topping charts. Her new hit Texas Hold ‘Em is the first song by a black woman to debut at top spot on the Billboard country chart.The pivot from R&B and pop may have come as a surprise to some but her dad thinks it’s always been in her blood.Dr Matthew Knowles tells BBC Asian Network that as a child Beyoncé would spend time with his parents in Alabama who loved country music.”When Beyoncé was a little baby, and I’m talking two-three years old, she would go down and spend the summer with my parents,” Dr Knowles says.”And her grandfather – my father – loved country music, and he used to sing to her. At an early age, she heard this music.”And when you’re two, three years old, subconsciously music stays in your head,” he says.Dr Knowles, who until 2011 managed his daughter, says he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Beyoncé’s childhood memories played a role in her new direction.The record executive has also previously managed Beyoncé’s sister Solange and her group Destiny’s Child.He says Beyoncé now has the chance to bring a “totally new audience” to the country genre.Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Dr Matthew Knowles used to manage Beyoncé as well as her sister SolangeBeyoncé announced her new album, the second part to her Renaissance project, during the Super Bowl last week with two tracks released immediately.The second track, 16 Carriages, entered the Billboard country charts at number nine and it’s anticipated that the full album – due to be released next month – will be country too.While a full country album will be a first for the Texas-born singer, Dr Knowles points out it’s not her first time at the rodeo.”On a previous album [Lemonade, 2016], there’s a country song Daddy Lessons,” he says.While the song was put forward for the country category at the Grammys, it was rejected by the Recording Academy. Music critics say the genre has an issue with representation, particularly for black and female artists, and a US country station last week had to reverse a decision not to play Texas Hold ‘Em.But Dr Knowles believes Beyoncé’s new direction could change this and introduce a whole new fan base to country music. “The country music industry should really look at that as a plus not a minus, that she’s bringing a completely new audience.”Image source, Wisniewska.fotografiaImage caption, Anna Prasek, known as anMari, won a scholarship to study music in LondonThe businessman and lecturer says diversity in the music industry is heading “in the right direction” but there’s still room for improvement.It’s why he’s launched a scholarship at London College of Contemporary Music in his name for rising stars.The first musician to be awarded the bursary, worth £10,500, is Polish composer, singer and pianist Anna Prasek, known as anMari.”I feel very honoured and grateful,” she tells BBC Asian Network.”It gave me big hope to keep working hard to keep pushing my boundaries and thinking outside of the box, trying something new.”And it’s trying out something fresh which Dr Knowles says caught his attention. “In this world of music, we look for what’s different,” he says. “We don’t need another Beyoncé, we have one. We don’t need another Taylor Swift, we have one. But we do need a new anMari.”‘Beyoncé can open UK country music floodgates’Radio plays Beyoncé after country music outcryBeyoncé announces new album in Super Bowl advertAnd his advice for the next generation of artists is no different to the advice he gave Beyoncé and Solange, he says.”The advice I gave my kids is that if this is your passion, then I’ll surround you with the tools.”You have to be disciplined, patient, but you have to have the passion and the work ethic.”Those two things are critically important,” he says.Listen to Ankur Desai’s show on BBC Asian Network live from 15:00-18:00 Monday to Thursday – or listen back here.Related TopicsCountry musicLondonAlabamaBeyoncéUnited StatesMusicMore on this story’Beyoncé can open UK country music floodgates’Published5 days agoRadio plays Beyoncé after country music outcryPublished6 days agoBeyoncé announces new album in Super Bowl advertPublished12 FebruaryBeyoncé’s mum hits out at skin lightening commentsPublished29 November 2023Beyonce splits with manager dadPublished29 March 2011Top StoriesLive. 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VideoWatch Big Keith’s iconic scotch egg scene from The OfficeWho is Ruby Franke, the jailed parenting influencer?Christmas cards arrive in February’I was raped more than 100 times by grooming gang’Sewage, floods and rats underscore NHS repair taskElsewhere on the BBCCan Molly keep her life afloat?A moving portrayal of a daughter’s love in the face of her father’s struggleAttributioniPlayerThe Swedish furniture king’s billionaire lifestyleDeconstructing IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad and his eccentric way of livingAttributionSoundsWhat is it really like to be a monk?’To be a monk is something very vast, very high and very beautiful’AttributioniPlayerHow did a booming computer manufacturer go bust?Commodore computers were huge in the 1980s, so why couldn’t the business adapt and survive?AttributionSoundsMost Read1Boy missing in river is bundle of joy, says mum2The Office actor Ewen MacIntosh dies aged 503Winners of £61m EuroMillions jackpot revealed4’Incredible’ old shipwreck found on Orkney beach5Mystery over persistent mercury levels in tuna6Xbox games coming to Nintendo Switch named7Trident missile test fails for second time in a row8Ex-Post Office chair escalates compensation row9UK sanctions Russia jail chiefs after Navalny death10Don’t dry your iPhone in a bag of rice, says Apple](https://newsinsightplus.com/wp-content/uploads/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/F4F6/production/_132701726_gettyimages-1986605970.jpg)
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaDR Congo violence: Panic in Goma as M23 rebels advancePublished1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, EPAImage caption, Goma’s population has swelled in recent days as people arrive by motorbike and foot fleeing advancing fightersBy Samba Cyuzuzo & Mayeni JonesBBC Great Lakes & BBC NewsEmile Bolingo is not sure how long he and other residents of Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, can hold out.This major city in the region, with about two million people, has been cut off from the farms that feed it for several days.It is the latest episode in a resurgence of fighting that has seen tens of thousands added to the nearly seven million who have been forced from their homes in the country because of multiple conflicts.Rebels from the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 movement are blocking the two main roads into Goma from the north and the west and preventing produce from getting through.”We are scared of going hungry if the [Congolese army] do not liberate any of the main roads very soon. You can feel the panic here… people are very scared,” Mr Bolingo told the BBC.Goma’s population has swelled in recent days with people running from the advancing fighters.Image source, Glody MurhabaziImage caption, Mundeke Kandundao, a motorbike taxi rider, has just undergone surgery after a bomb blastSake, a town 25km (15 miles) north-west of Goma, came under attack on Wednesday.”I sustained a pelvic injury caused by shrapnel,” Mundeke Kandundao told the BBC from his hospital bed in Goma where he has undergone surgery.The 25-year-old motorbike taxi driver said a shell was launched by the rebels from a hill overlooking the town on Wednesday.”I was standing behind a cabin and there were a lot of other people there and that’s where it exploded,” he said.”We are scared because you know the war goes on and on, it is meaningless. We are waiting to see if it ends so that we can go back to our homes.”Laurent Cresci, from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told the BBC from the state-run Bethsaida Hospital in Goma that patient numbers had surged on Wednesday: “It was really a mass casualty. We were before 80 patients in our ward, and now we have 130 patients so it’s really hard to manage.”For many people it is a tragic case of déjà vu.”For how long shall we live like this? Every now and then we keep fleeing,” Pascal Bashali told the BBC after he had arrived in Goma. People are streaming in by foot, on motorbikes and mini buses.Aline Ombeni said she was distraught on her arrival in the city: “We have fled empty-handed just as you are seeing us – no food, no clothes we need help with shelter and food.”Image source, AFPImage caption, M23 fighters are well equipped, but the group denies being a Rwanda proxyAs the conflict edges closer, it brings back memories of 2012 when the rebels occupied the lakeside city for 10 days before abandoning it following international pressure.The M23, formed as an offshoot of another rebel group, began operating in 2012 ostensibly to protect the Tutsi population in the east of DR Congo which had long complained of persecution and discrimination. UN experts have said that the group is backed by neighbouring Rwanda, which is also led by Tutsis, something that Kigali has consistently denied. “We all know that the reason of this war is economic. Rwanda is continuing… for the past 25 years… looting our mineral resources,” Congolese Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya told the BBC, urging the UK to use its influence with Rwanda to ease the situation.There are now fears that the M23 – by far the most organised, disciplined and well-equipped of the many militia groups in the region – could capture Goma once again.Recently re-elected Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi last year said that “Congolese need to learn to trust us, Goma will never fall”. He repeated the promise, in the city itself, during the election campaign in December.Within reach of major mining towns supplying metals and minerals in high demand such as gold, tin and coltan, Goma has become a vital economic hub. Its road and air transport links, and the fact that it has a huge UN peacekeeping base, has attracted a host of businesses, international organisations and diplomatic consulates.As such, Goma is a valuable strategic target, but the M23 says it does not want to capture it and maintains it is on the defensive not offensive.DR Congo squad use Afcon spotlight to call for peaceWhy TikTokers are quitting vapes over DR CongoA quick guide to DR Congo”If you see the military power of the M23, they could take Goma if they wanted to, but this could bring them many problems,” said Onesphore Sematumba, a DR Congo analyst at the International Crisis Group thinktank.The rebels may just be displaying their capabilities, and also thinking back to 2012 and the international opprobrium that followed the seizing of Goma then.In the aftermath of its withdrawal it suffered a series of heavy defeats at the hands of the Congolese army backed by a multinational force that saw it expelled from the country. M23 fighters then agreed to be re-integrated into the army in return for promises that Tutsis would be protected.But, in 2021, the group took up arms again, saying the promises had been broken.It emerged from the mountain forests on the border between DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda and edged closer to Goma taking swathes of territory.Ceasefires have been agreed, but these have all broken down, with the government and the M23 blaming each other.The M23 has repeatedly said it still wants peace negotiations with Kinshasa.”We asked for the dialogue to resolve this problem peacefully,” M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka told the BBC. “Many cycles of war… don’t resolve the root causes of conflict. The Congolese government itself doesn’t want that, it wants to go on a war, and kill people even more.” President Tshisekedi has said talks are “out of question”.”One thing must be clear is that we as government, we will never negotiate with M23. M23 doesn’t exist. It’s Rwanda acting with its puppet,” his communications minister told the BBC.Image source, ReutersImage caption, Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled their villages to live in makeshift camps; some are on the move againLast year, an East African force, which was in DR Congo to help protect civilians and secure areas that armed groups had withdrawn from, left the country at the government’s request.Its departure in December was followed by the end of the latest ceasefire and the recent upsurge in activity by the M23.President Tshisekedi hopes that a southern African force that recently arrived in its place will have more success as it has a mandate to attack rebel groups.He has also asked the large UN force in the country, known as Monusco, to leave. It has become increasingly unpopular for its failure to end the conflict during its 25-year deployment. But there are concerns that the conflict could get even worse after the Congolese president threatened in December to declare war on Rwanda if the rebels attack again.In an apparent reply to the remarks, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said in January that in defending his country “we will fight like people who have nothing to lose”.Meanwhile, Natàlia Torrent, from medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned that the intensification of fighting in “different areas and on different fronts” since mid-January is having a devastating effect on an already vulnerable population.”We are in an area that has been already prone to the spread of different epidemics. We have been already working in the last year on cholera or measles and we are afraid… [a] new wave of epidemics are going to surge again,” she told the BBC.Reflecting on the fighting, Goma resident Mr Bolingo added: “We are the ones who suffer.” Mr Bashali, who fled from Sake with his wife and nine children, agreed: “Men are dying, children are dying, women are dying, those fighting are dying, what for? We are praying that our country will be peaceful.”Additional reporting by journalist Glody Murhabazi in GomaRelated TopicsDemocratic Republic of CongoMore on this storyDR Congo country profilePublished2 JanuaryAround the BBCFocus on Africa podcastsTop StoriesKing thanks public for support after cancer newsPublished4 hours agoSix-year-old Gazan girl found dead days after plea for helpPublished15 hours agoAre politicians cooling on tackling climate change?Published11 hours agoFeaturesRussia’s war economy can’t last but has bought timeThe planespotter angering Taylor Swift and Elon MuskTeens fight back against online skincare trendsThe Papers: ‘Democracy in danger’ and King’s heartfelt thanksAre politicians cooling on tackling climate change?‘We had to bury our baby in a stranger’s coffin’Will King’s diagnosis bring Harry and William closer?’There is no right or wrong way to have alopecia’Bad economy, nosy relatives: Young Chinese put off by Lunar New YearElsewhere on the BBCIt’s make or break timeAnother set of eager entrepreneurs hope to impress the fearsome panelAttributioniPlayerHow are jelly beans made?Gregg Wallace visits a Dublin factory that makes over ten million of the sweets per day!AttributioniPlayerIs this the greatest Jurassic predator that ever lived?Sir David Attenborough investigates a unique discovery: the skull of a giant, prehistoric sea monsterAttributioniPlayerThe sound effect that became the ultimate movie in-jokeIt’s used in everything from Toy Story to Reservoir Dogs, but what is the Wilhelm Scream?AttributioniPlayerMost Read1The planespotter angering Taylor Swift and Elon Musk2’Democracy in danger’ and King’s heartfelt thanks3‘We had to bury our baby in a stranger’s coffin’4King thanks public for support after cancer news5Hungary president resigns over child abuse pardon6I’d be an eejit not to enjoy Oscars – Cillian Murphy7Faisal Islam: Russia’s war economy cannot last but has bought time8Teens fight back against online skincare trends9Six-year-old Gazan girl found dead days after plea for help10Fujitsu bosses paid £26m during Horizon contract](https://newsinsightplus.com/wp-content/uploads/https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/14B90/production/_132608848_epa_congoindex.jpg)
