In 2002, Woo, general director of Vinh Tuong Company based in southern Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa Town, introduced her friend Truong My Lan, president of Van Thinh Phat Company in the same town, to an Indonesian investor.

The Indonesian businessman, Ted Sioeng, decided to contribute money to Lan’s two projects in HCMC, according to the indictment.

Sioeng and his daughter agreed to invest $40 million in order to share 40 percent of the profit from the two projects - a commercial center and an apartment building.

Woo would receive 20 percent of the profit for her introduction.

In August 2002, Sioeng decided to pull out of the deal and the three parties signed a document, which said that Lan would return to Sioeng the $6 million he had invested.

In February 2003, Woo allegedly met with Lan, falsely claiming to be Sioeng’s representative to collect $2 million from the debt.

Instead of repaying the money, Lan allegedly gave Woo some real estate – a house on a 427-square-meter lot in HCMC’s District 1 together with the land-use title.

Vietnam does not allow formal land ownership but grants land-use rights, which confer the same rights as freehold property.

Woo allegedly sold the land and house but didn’t pay Sioeng the money.

During the investigation, the Supreme People’s Procuracy rejected a statement by Woo that she had bought the house from Lan in a legal transaction for $1.6 million that had nothing to do with Lan’s deal with Sioeng.

Lan has also accused Woo of falsely representing Sioeng to collect the other $4 million of the debt but there is not enough evidence to try her claims.

Reported by Le Nga