On October 31, the Ho Chi Minh City police department initiated legal proceedings against Trương Ngọc Ánh, a 49-year-old businesswoman and former chairwoman of Dragon Real Estate Corporation. She has been charged with the crime of “abusing trust to appropriate assets.”
The allegations were made after Dragon Real Estate Corporation filed a complaint against Ánh, who was previously at the helm of the company. The firm claims she has misappropriated its assets during her tenure as the legal representative.
The Dragon Real Estate Company, established in 2007 with Ánh as the managing director, attracted investments amounting to $9.1 million (over 149 billion VND) from P.G.M., an Irish investor, to fund two real estate projects, including the Indochine building located at 112 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai in District 3. Of this investment, P.G.M. transferred $4.49 million, equivalent to 72 billion VND, specifically for the Indochine project.
Investigation results revealed significant discrepancies in ownership claims. Prior to signing the investment contract on January 25, 2008, Ánh and another individual, N.M.H. (61), had already signed personal contracts to purchase land from four local households for only 7,917.3 lượng vàng, despite the project requiring ownership by Dragon Real Estate Company as stipulated.
While the contract’s financial terms indicated a value of 12,917.7 lượng vàng for ownership, Ánh made payments of only 3,000 lượng vàng but recorded 4,458 lượng vàng in the company’s books, indicating potential fraud and inflated project valuations for personal gain.
Additionally, a government decision in December 2007 mandated the recovery of the project site for the expansion of Lê Quý Đôn High School, resulting in over 26.1 billion VND in compensation paid to the local households. However, when the households returned this sum to Ánh and N.M.H., Ánh only transferred 3 billion VND back to the company and concerned investors, while over 10 billion VND was unaccounted for and misappropriated for personal use.
Furthermore, throughout her management of the company, Ánh allegedly exploited her position as the legal representative by withdrawing funds unlawfully, directing the creation of false accounting entries, and altering financial reports to conceal her misappropriation.
The police are currently expanding their investigation into this case, aiming to clarify the roles of all parties involved and to recover assets for the affected investors and company.
Trương Ngọc Ánh is a well-known figure in Vietnam’s entertainment industry, celebrated for her roles in films such as “Blood Money,” “Lục Vân Tiên,” “Silk Ao Dai,” and “Hương Ga.” In addition to her acting career, she is also recognized as a film producer, entrepreneur, and model. However, she has recently been embroiled in controversies related to debts and legal disputes before being formally charged and detained.