Vietnam's famous actress Truong Ngoc Anh detained for 'property appropriation'

Truong Ngoc Anh, former chairwoman of Dat Rong Real Estate JSC and one of the most famous actresses in Vietnam, has been accused of abusing trust to appropriate thousands of taels of gold and tens of billions of dong (VND10 billion = $380,000).

Anh, 49, was temporarily detained by the Ho Chi Minh City Police's economic police department on Friday for the act of "abusing trust to appropriate property".

Previously, Dat Rong Real Estate, located at 25 Dao Duy Anh street, Duc Nhuan ward, filed a complaint against Truong Ngoc Anh, who used to be chairwoman and director of the company, for signs of appropriating the company's property.

Dat Rong Real Estate was established in 2007 with Anh as director and legal representative. During its operation, Anh called on a man named P.G.M (Irish nationality) to contribute total investment capital of $9.1 million to implement two real estate projects, including the Indochine building project at 112 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street in the former District 3. For this project alone, the man transferred $4.49 million.

According to an investment contract signed on January 25, 2008, the Indochine building project was to be owned by Dat Rong Real Estate with a value of more than 12,917 taels of gold.

However, investigation results showed that right before signing the contract, the actress and another man named N.M.H, 61, signed a sales contract with four households in the project land with only 7,917 taels of gold in their personal names.

The investigative agency determined that Anh had only paid 3,000 taels of gold but recorded the company's books as having spent 4,458 taels, violating the investment agreement, showing signs of fraud, inflating the project value to appropriate the difference.

Previously, in December 2007, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee had issued a decision to reclaim this land to expand Le Quy Don High School, and at the same time paid more than VND26.1 billion ($991,830) in compensation to four households.

Afterwards, the households returned the entire amount to Anh and N.M.H. However, Anh only transferred VND3 billion ($114,000) to the company and investors. The remaining more than VND10 billion was used for personal purposes, without reporting or accounting.

The investigative agency also accused Anh of abusing her authority as a legal representative, arbitrarily withdrawing money from the company's account, directing the creation of fake accounting entries, and falsifying financial reports to conceal the act of appropriation.

Truong Ngoc Anh is one of the most popular and beautiful actresses in Vietnam.