Vietnam: Sudden death of accused will not affect probe into Van Thinh Phat chairwoman

Ho Chi Minh City [Vietnam], October 31 : Vietnam's public security ministry on Saturday said that the sudden death of some accused, who were involved in the alleged financial fraud involving the 'Van Thinh Phat Group's chairwoman, will not affect the investigation, VNExpress International reported.
The ministry's spokesman, To An Xo, said that the decision to launch an investigation into the case was to ensure that the law is upheld and that the business is being operated properly.
Earlier, on October 8, Truong My Lan was arrested on suspicion of financial fraud as the country intensified its long anti-graft fight drive, The Strait Times reported.
Truong My Lan was accused of illegally issuing bonds to raise trillions of dong (tens of millions of dollars) from investors during the 2018-2019 period, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam said in a news statement released on October 8.
While giving more details about the investigation, Xo said that certain people involved in the case had "sudden deaths", which caused some investigation difficulties. However, the case will eventually come to light and justice would be served.
"Key leaders of the Communist Party and the government when informed of the case all agreed that it would be a difficult one, but must be handled. The more difficult it is, the more determined we are in handling it," VNExpress International quoted Xo as saying.
Besides Lan, Truong Hue Van, 34, CEO of Windsor Property Management, Nguyen Phuong Hong, 38, an assistant at Van Thinh Phat, and Ho Buu Phuong, 50, former chairwoman of Tan Viet Securities and former deputy financial director of Van Thinh Phat, were also arrested.
They allegedly cheated a number of people in 2018-19 to misappropriate trillions of dong, according to VNExpress International.
Earlier, the Singapore Post reported that the unnatural death of three senior executives from the Van Thinh Phat group during the first few days of October 2022 raised speculation of a Chinese connection in the fraud case.
The Vietnamese authorities are assuming that the three people, belonging to the Van Thinh Phat group, have been eliminated by Chinese spies to save Lan as they had proof of all her misdoings.
There are also rumours that the death of Vietnam's former President Tran Dai Quang was also linked to the Chinese. Tran died in 2018 while holding the post of President. He was apparently given one billion Dollars by Lan as a bribe but he did not further the Chinese interest.
According to senior doctors who were handling his case, no investigations could point out what disease he was suffering from and it appeared to be a case of poisoning, reported Singapore Post.
Considering the sensitivity of the case, the Vietnamese authorities have banned media houses from publishing this story and have attributed the deaths to natural causes. It is a known fact in Vietnam that there is a strong network of Chinese spies and almost all important setups are infiltrated by these operatives who do not fear taking extreme actions like poisoning the opponents.