Nguyen Cao Tri: Real estate giant and a series of scandalous cases, arrested for involvement with Ms. Truong My Lan

Before being arrested for taking $ 40 million from Van Thinh Phat owner - Truong My Lan, businessman Nguyen Cao Tri used to make the market stir in many million-dollar deals.

Who is Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri?

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri was born in 1970, living in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Referring to Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri, it is impossible not to mention the Dai Ninh Urban Area project, invested by Saigon - Dai Ninh Tourism Investment Joint Stock Company. This project covers an area of more than 3,500 hectares with a total investment of more than VND 25,000 billion, located in Duc Trong district, Lam Dong province.

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri is the legal representative General Director of Saigon Dai Ninh Tourism Investment Joint Stock Company.

13 years after being granted the investment certificate, the project has not been completed. Duc Trong District People's Committee also statistics that the project has "lost" more than 257ha of forest land.

In 2020, the Government Inspectorate requested the termination of operation and land acquisition with the project. The reason for recovery is that the investor has not complied with its financial obligations after being converted to land use purposes, has not made records of forest product collection, has not fulfilled the obligation to plant replacement forests with the area of changing forest use purposes and compensated forest resources but has carried out road construction.

Then, in July 2021, the Government Inspectorate again withdrew this revocation request, the Provincial People's Committee instructed the investor to carry out procedures for extending the schedule, adjusting the project according to the 2014 Investment Law and extending land use according to the 2013 Land Law. The Government Inspectorate requires the investor to complete the project as committed and implement the investment according to the approved scale.

In connection with this project, in March this year, the Economic Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security initiated the accused, detaining Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Chief Inspector of Lam Dong province, for investigation of "accepting bribes".

In addition, Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri has been a member of the Board of Directors of Khanh Hoi Investment and Service Joint Stock Company (Khahomex - stock code: KHA) since 30/6/2017. This company operates in areas such as real estate investment, office for lease, building operation management, early childhood education and financial investment.

Khahomex has implemented many projects in Ben Van Don, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City such as Khanh Hoi Apartment 1-2-3; cooperate with Novaland to do the project of ICON 56 luxury apartment, Riverside Palace wedding restaurant ...

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri is also the legal representative at Capella Group Joint Stock Company (Capella Holdings). Since 2009, Capella Holdings has acquired 51% of shares and become the controlling shareholder of Nhu Ngoc Import Export Joint Stock Company to prepare for the implementation of real estate projects.

In 2010, Capella Holdings cooperated with Duc Khai Joint Stock Company to establish Ben Thanh - Duc Khai Real Estate Exchange (71-79 Dong Khoi, District 1) with the initial purpose to cooperate in distributing the Epoch apartment project (Era Town), District 7, Ho Chi Minh City invested by Duc Khai.

Since 2015, Capella Holdings has officially expanded its business development in many industries, including real estate.

The invested project is The One Saigon apartment, owning 3 fronts of Le Thi Hong Gam, Ky Con, Dang Thi Nhu in the center of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The One Saigon has 126 apartments and Loft-penthouse (apartment with 2 floors connected to each other) is distributed from the 5th floor to the 20th floor of the building. To date, the project has been handed over.

"Tycoon" chain restaurants, weddings

In addition to real estate, Capella Holdings also promotes business in the field of food and entertainment (F&B Hospitality).

Since 2009, Capella Holdings has established Capital Trading and Service Joint Stock Company to exploit Capital Palace Convention and Wedding Center (Phu Nhuan, Ho Chi Minh City) with a scale of more than 14,000m2 floor, accommodating up to 3,800 wedding and conference tables.

2 years later, Riverside Palace Convention and Wedding Center with a capacity of 5,000 guests, 10,000m2 was also opened in Ben Van Don, District 4. Continuing after 2 years, Claris Palace Convention and Wedding Center (Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) with a capacity of 3,000 guests was also opened.

But 2014 was really the booming year of Capella Holdings when opening 4 consecutive wedding centers, entertainment, bars ... in Phu Nhuan, District 1, District 4.

Since 2015, the group has owned 11 well-known brands in the field of entertainment (Air 360 Sky Bar, Chill Bar, La Vie En Rose, Live Music & Bar); convention and wedding centers (Riverside Palace, Claris Palace, Capella Park View, Capella Center); Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese restaurants (San Fu Lou, Sorae, Aunt Mai).

In addition, the owner of a large-scale wedding restaurant chain in Ho Chi Minh City is also famous for buying nearly 580,000 SGB shares of Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) in 2021 and participating as a member of the Board of Directors for the term 2019-2024.

However, earlier this year, the bank announced that Mr. Tri "naturally lost his status", no longer a member of the Board of Directors from January 19 in accordance with the Law on Credit Institutions.

Cases of natural loss of membership of the Board of Directors include loss of civil act capacity, death; violating regulations on cases of not being allowed to hold office; no longer a representative of capital contributions; when a credit institution has its license revoked...

Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri was also known as the Chairman of Van Lang University.

Misappropriation of more than $40 million from Ms. Truong My Lan

In the afternoon of August 5, at the regular Government press conference, Lieutenant General To An So, spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, announced that Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri (53 years old, a member of the board of Van Lang University, General Director of Saigon - Dai Ninh Tourism Investment Company) was arrested and detained by the Police Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security on January 15 on charges of Abuse of trust and misappropriation of assets, according to article 175 of the Penal Code.

According to the report of the CSI, in the process of expanding the investigation into the case of An Dong Company (Van Thinh Phat Group), the Investment Agency discovered that Ms. Truong My Lan had a business and investment relationship with Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri.

Ms. Truong My Lan transferred more than 40 million USD to Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri to buy and sell projects and businesses. When Ms. Truong My Lan was arrested, Mr. Nguyen Cao Tri came up with the idea of misappropriating the money Ms. Truong My Lan had transferred to Mr. Tri.

According to Lieutenant General So, Nguyen Cao Tri instructed some employees to destroy all documents and evidence that Lan transferred more than $40 million with the aim of taking all the money.

At the investigating agency, Mr. Tri has pleaded guilty and will have to return all the money misappropriated. The CSI has also seized and frozen Mr. Tri's assets to ensure asset recovery for the case.

"Through this incident, the Ministry of Public Security warned that the law will strictly handle those who use tricks to seize money and assets transferred by partners, but when partners are entangled in legal circles, they try to seize them," Lieutenant General To An Soviet stated.

Ms. Phuong Hang revealed about Truong My Lan on talk show, winning 1 point Keng21:32:14 22/10/2024In the recent talk show Sympathy or Indifference, CEO of Dai Nam Nguyen Phuong Hang unexpectedly called out Ms. Truong My Lan. She pointed out the similarities and differences between the two.