Tan Hiep Phat chairman arrested

Thanh, 70, and Phuong, 42, were arrested for abusing trust to appropriate others’ property, according to investigators from the Ministry of Public Security.

Thanh’s second daughter, Tran Ngoc Bich, 39, Deputy General Director of THP and Director of Number One Ha Nam Company, is also under investigation for the same charge, but she was not in custody.

Police searched the residences and workplaces of Thanh and his daughters at nine locations on Monday afternoon. Hundreds of armed police locked down the headquarter of THP on Highway 13, Lai Thieu Ward, Thuan An Town, Binh Duong Province.

The ministry’s investigators said they have received complaints from people in the neighboring Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province accusing Thanh, Phuong, Bich and a number of individuals for acts of fraud and abuse of trust, tax evasion and property appropriation regarding projects and real estate of “particularly great value” in Dong Nai and HCMC.

Police officers outside Tan Hiep Phat headquarter in Binh Duong on April 10, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Yen Khanh

The investigation began in March last year after police received an accusation from Le Van Lam, CEO of Kim Oanh Dong Nai Investment and Development Company, Nguyen Van Chung, CEO of DCB Joint Stock Company and Lam Hoang Son.

The accusers claimed that Phat, Phuong and other people used fake contracts to conceal a different contract in order to borrow money.

Lam said that the fraud cost Kim Oanh Dong Nai over VND1 trillion ($40.21 million) in damage.

Investigators of the Ministry of Public Security then requested Dong Nai authorities to cease all transactions of the Minh Thanh Dong Nai Company and a residential area in An Phuoc Commune where Lam claimed that a land lot had been illegally acquired.

They also requested Ho Chi Minh City authorities to freeze 33 land lots owned by Phuong.

Phuong’s legal representative had told VnExpress that all the accusations against her and her family were false, that the contracts were real and implemented by all sides.

After 20 months of investigation, in November last year, the public security ministry suspended investigation into the case temporarily as the legal investigation period for this case is over and more assessment is needed for the alleged damage suffered by the accusers.