Late Cantopop diva Anita Mui’s mother Tam Mei Kam recently turned 100 and the centenariancelebrated the milestone with a small gathering with friends and family.
Snaps from the celebration have since made the rounds online, and in the pics, Mei Kam looked to be in good spirits as she posed with her birthday cake and longevity buns, alongside pink balloons spelling her age.
A sumptuous-looking spread was prepared for the celebration, which appeared to have taken place at Mei Kam’s home.
But perhaps the best birthday present are the ang pows and framed letter Mei Kam received from the Hong Kong government.
According to reports, since 2002, it has been a tradition for the Secretary of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, together with the Chairman of the Elderly Commission, to send birthday greetings to Hong Kong residents who are 100 years old.
They will receive another letter when they turn 105, as well as their birthday every subsequent year.
At the same time, the Ministry of Public Security crushed any discussion of bank runs from social media, imprisoning several people who had posted stories about SCB as a deterrent to others.
The case against Lan and Van Thinh Phat expanded, and eventually prosecutors made the explicit link between them and SCB. The government case showed that Lan had secretly acquired 91.5 per cent of the bank, through 27 nominees, following its 2012 establishment, when three insolvent banks were merged to create SCB.
Cross-ownership among banks and real estate companies, alongside poor management and high levels of corruption, have long been a slow-burn crisis in Vietnam’s banking sector. Without strong and timely solutions from the authorities, it will soon damage Vietnam’s reputation as one of the best investment destinations in Asia.
Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings, during her trial at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on April 11. Photo: EPA-EFE
From 2016 to 2022, Lan ordered bank officers, who were in on the fraud, to steer 2,500 loans worth more than US$44 billion to some 1,100 shell companies that she and allies controlled. That accounted for 93 per cent of the bank’s total lending and led to some US$27 billion in losses.
Lan got away with it by bribing a senior regulator at the central bank, and some 23 other government regulators, with US$5.2 million to falsify their oversight reports of SCB and hide bad debts and evidence of wrongdoing.
When it all came crashing down, there were some 1,300 outstanding loans to Lan and her affiliates, worth a total of 677 trillion dong (US$27 billion). Seventy per cent of the loans were deemed “unrecoverable”. In addition, the bank is not getting any of the interest payments on the loans.
Lan was convicted and sentenced to death for masterminding the fraud and personally embezzling US$12.5 billion.
But with her conviction and the scope of her fraud revealed, public confidence in SCB plummeted again.
In mid-2023, the State Bank of Vietnam submitted for government approval a restructuring plan for SCB, and in September it appointed a new chairman for the bank. Yet the bank remains saddled with the non-performing loans to Van Thinh Phat, its subsidiaries, and some 1,000 or so shell companies.
The Vietnam Asset Management Company, which was established in 2013 to buy up distressed assets, has been involved, but SBC’s losses dwarf VAMC’s assets and ability to raise funds through bond offerings.
A Vietnamese flag flies atop the State Bank building in central Hanoi. Its bailout of SCB amounted to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP last year. Photo: Reuters
To put it into perspective, the current SCB bailout amounted to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product of US$430 billion in 2023.
But, according to Reuters, deposits at SCB fell by 80 per cent to US$6 billion between October 2022 and December 2023. At the same time, consumers have been withdrawing their funds at record rates.
SCB was once one of the largest banks in the country in terms of assets, as it attracted depositors with high interest rates. In de facto receivership, its rates are no longer above market. And added to that is a lack of trust in the bank’s solvency, or the government’s ability to guarantee deposits.
Compounding SCB’s woes, non-performing loans are now over 97 per cent of its lending portfolio – while under 3 per cent is considered “healthy” in Vietnam.
The court ordered Lan and her family to come up with US$27 billion in restitution, and is now liquidating 1,112 assets, including the iconic Saigon One Tower and Saigon Peninsula hotel. Lan’s husband sold roughly US$1 billion in assets in Hong Kong as part of the restitution process.
Lan argues that the court’s valuation of Van Thinh Phat’s assets, roughly US$12 billion, is a fraction of her valuation of more than US$30 billion.
02:09
Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for US$12.5 billion fraud
Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for US$12.5 billion fraud
While liquidation should recover 30 per cent of the Van Thinh Phat fraud, roughly US$13 billion to US$14 billion, it will be a slow process. And that has forced the government to quietly inject an unprecedented US$24 billion in “special loans” since March 29 to keep SCB solvent, a number that seems suspiciously large, given the bank’s overall size.
“Without lending, SCB will collapse,” an insider told Reuters. “Yet the scale was absolutely unsustainable. If the lending continues, the national treasury will gradually dry up.” The lending amounts to nearly one-quarter of the country’s US$100 billion in foreign reserves.
Historically, when similar banking crises happened, the central bank sought help from other local banks to bail out the troubled ones. Given the economic slowdown since the Covid-19 pandemic, no local bank appears to have sufficient capital to rescue SCB at the moment.
It is much less attractive to foreign investors given the 30 per cent cap on foreign ownership and how fragile the banking and real estate sectors are at the moment, plus the lack of trust in the banking system’s corporate governance and transparency.
Already, the government and State Bank of Vietnam have a lot on their plate. The economy is slowing, and the government has had to intervene to shore up the dong against the dollar, while the government announced the first auction of gold since 2013, to stabilise the precious metal’s soaring price.
Signage atop a Saigon Commercial Bank branch in Ho Chi Minh City. SCB was an important commercial lender before the fraud was uncovered. Photo: Bloomberg
Impact on the banking system
This has huge repercussions for the economy. First, SCB was an important commercial lender.
To make matters worse, other banks have drastically reduced their lending, despite the fact that their deposits are substantially up. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently held a meeting where he chastised bank executives for failing to lend.
Yet banks have reason to be cautious in their lending given the scope of the Van Thinh Phat and SCB fraud.
Moreover, as a result of the scandal, financial regulators are under intense scrutiny right now and are looking at the banks’ balance sheets with a bit more rigour than in the past.
A container port in Quy Nhon, Vietnam’s Binh Dinh province. Vietnam’s economy grew by 5.66 per cent in the first quarter, below target. Photo: AFP
There are also market forces at work. Vietnam’s economy is still too tied to exports and is too vulnerable to externalities. Nikkei Asia Review reported a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in corporate failures in 2023, which has caused banks to be even more cautious.
Third, the loss of confidence in SCB could very likely have a contagion effect on the entire banking system. The government has been stretched to the limit dealing with SCB; it cannot afford to deal with multiple simultaneous bank runs.
All of this comes when Vietnam’s growth in the first quarter, though still at 5.66 per cent, is below the target and the 6.72 per cent growth rate in the last quarter of 2023. Vietnam’s target is 6-6.5 per cent growth for 2024, but a major banking crisis would thwart that.
Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC, where he focuses on Southeast Asian politics and security issues. The views are his own and do not reflect those of the National War College or Department of Defence.
Truong My Lan was found guilty in April of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank for over a decade.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
HANOI – A top Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in a US$27 billion (S$36.8 billion) fraud case has launched an appeal against her conviction, state media said on April 26.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty in April of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank for over a decade.
The 68-year-old was found to have embezzled US$12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to US$27 billion – one of the biggest frauds in history, equivalent to 6 per cent of Vietnam’s 2023 gross domestic product.
Thanh Nien news site said Lan has filed an appeal against the verdict and sentence and that the court in Ho Chi Minh City had received it.
Lan said in her appeal that she took on risks through the bank but did not appropriate the bank’s money.
After a five-week trial, 85 others were sentenced alongside Lan on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
Four were given life imprisonment, while the others received jail terms ranging between 20 years and three years suspended.
The police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the South-east Asian country.
The case was part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite in recent years.
The latest scalp was the head of the National Assembly, who resigned on April 26 because of “violations and shortcomings”, according to a party statement.
On April 25, the head of one of Vietnam’s top soft drinks companies was jailed for eight years in a US$40 million fraud case. AFP
NEW YORK: New York prosecutors said on Friday (Apr 26) they had returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American dealers and traffickers.
The antiquities were valued at a total of US$3 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
Bragg said in a statement that he had returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze of the Hindu deity Shiva ("Shiva Triad") looted from Cambodia and a stone bas-relief of two royal figures from the Majapahit empire (13th-16th century) stolen from Indonesia.
Bragg accused art dealers Subhash Kapoor, an Indian-American, and American Nancy Wiener in the illegal trafficking of the antiquities.
Kapoor, accused of running a network trafficking in items stolen in Southeast Asia for sale in his Manhattan gallery, has been the target of a US justice investigation dubbed "Hidden Idol" for more than a decade.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, Kapoor was sent back to India where he was tried and sentenced in November 2022 to 13 years in prison.
Responding to a US indictment for conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art, Kapoor denied the charges.
"We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that ... target Southeast Asian antiquities," Bragg said in the statement.
TikTok, which has 170 million users in the US at stake, has said it would challenge the ban in court.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SINGAPORE - Popular short-video app TikTok might face being banned in the US after President Joe Biden on April 24 signed a Bill that will force its Chinese parent firm ByteDance to sell the social media platform.
The app would be banned in the United States if ByteDance fails to do so.
ST spoke to communications and political science experts to find out how the ban will affect users both in Singapore and abroad, and whether other countries will also consider a similar ban on the social media app.
Q: How will the US ban on TikTok affect users in Singapore and globally?
A: In the short term, TikTok users in Singapore will not be significantly impacted, said Dr Tracy Loh, a senior lecturer at the Singapore Management University.
Should the ban take effect, TikTok will be removed from Apple’s and Google’s app stores in the US so new users would not be able to download it.
Existing TikTok users would still be able to use the app but would miss updates, security patches and bug fixes.
But this could mean US content creators might put out less content on TikTok or migrate to another platform, said Dr Loh, who specialises in social media campaign strategies.
This could push TikTok users here and abroad to move to those alternatives, such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
Businesses dependent on the US market for sales might also be affected, Dr Loh said, adding that TikTok videos often direct viewers to the websites of such businesses.
Q: If I visit America on holiday, can I still use TikTok?
A: Even if visitors to the US cannot download TikTok from the Google and Apple app stores, there are workarounds to access TikTok, said Singapore University of Social Sciences’ (SUSS) associate professor Brian Lee.
One way is through virtual private network (VPN) apps, but this could violate TikTok’s terms of service, he added. A VPN service allows users to disguise the location of their devices.
Another wayto access TikTok is to install a SIM card which is not registered in the US into a phone, said Prof Lee.
A: A “domino effect” might follow with other countries, especially those allied with the US, to potentially ban the social media application, said Prof Lee, who is head of SUSS’ communication programme
It could prompt other countries to study how TikTok would compromise data privacy and national security, and to what extent, he added.
He noted that several countries including India and Nepal had banned TikTok before the US Bill.
“Even though both ByteDance and the China government have denied such (security) claims, it is likely that those countries that have banned or temporarily banned TikTok or other Chinese apps previously will impose stricter rules on TikTok if the US bans TikTok eventually,” Prof Lee said.
That said, not all states will follow the US’ footsteps.
National University of Singapore associate professor of political science Chong Ja Ian said: “It is a matter for each individual state as they assess their own security risks, need to protect citizens’ privacy, and data protection considerations.”
A: The new law comes amid a four-year battle over TikTok between the US and China.
Widespread fear that TikTok might share the data of its US users with the Chinese government led the US Senate on April 23 to vote in favour of the TikTok Bill.
US Senator Marco Rubio, a top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said: “For years, we’ve allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of the most popular apps in America. That was dangerously short-sighted.”
In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the legislation, adding that “though the US has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the US’ national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok”.
Q: How did TikTok respond to the Bill?
A: ByteDance now has to sell TikTok within the next nine months.
The social media giant has said it would challenge the move in court.
If TikTok receives a preliminary injunction from the court, the forced sale process is paused. This would provide TikTok more time to operate freely in the US.
In a TikTok video on April 24, chief executive Chew Shou Zi said the social media app will continue to operate.
He said: “Rest assured – we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
The viewpoint above is particularly popular because the majestic volcano appears behind a Lawson convenience store, which is ubiquitous in Japan.
PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO – A huge black barrier to block Mount Fuji from view will be installed in a popular photo spot by the Japanese authorities exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists.
Construction of the mesh net – 2.5m high and the length of a cricket pitch at 20m – will begin as early as next week, an official from Fujikawaguchiko town said on April 26.
It is regrettable to have to do this “because of some tourists who can’t respect rules”, leaving litter behind and ignoring traffic regulations, he told AFP.
It is the latest direct action in Japan against overtourism after residents of Kyoto’s geisha district banned visitors from small private alleys in 2024.
Record numbers of overseas tourists are travelling to the country, where monthly visitors exceeded three million in March for the first time ever.
Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain, can be photographed from many spots in the resort town of Fujikawaguchiko.
But this viewpoint is particularly popular because the majestic volcano appears behind a Lawson convenience store, which is ubiquitous in Japan.
Due to this visual juxtaposition, “a reputation has spread on social media that this spot is very Japanese, making it a popular photo location”, said the town official, who declined to be named.
After traffic signs and repeated warnings from security guards fell on deaf ears, the town in Yamanashi region decided on the huge screen as a last resort.
The measure is also meant to protect a nearby dental clinic against the onslaught of tourists.
They sometimes park there without permission and have even been seen climbing on the roof of the clinic to get the perfect shot, the official said.
The town wishes it had not come down to this, he said, adding that the current plan is for the screen to be maintained until the situation improves.
Tourism to Japan has been booming since pandemic-era border restrictions were lifted, and the government has been working hard to boost visitor numbers.
But this has not been universally welcomed – including in Kyoto, where locals have complained of snap-happy tourists harassing the city’s immaculately dressed geisha.
This summer, hikers using the most popular route to climb Mount Fuji will be charged US$13 (S$17.70) each, with numbers capped to ease congestion.
Other top destinations worldwide are also struggling with visitor numbers, and on April 25, Venice began charging day trippers for entry to tackle mass tourism. AFP
Experts say low wages and high property prices are among factors contributing to the decline of mental health among young Taiwanese. Many do not think they can afford to buy a home, let alone have a family – leading them to think they have no future.
Last year, more than 215,000 Taiwanese under the age of 30 took medication for depression symptoms – over double the number recorded a decade ago.
However, the number of people living with the condition is likely much higher. According to some studies, less than 30 per cent of people with depression seek medical attention.
The Guardian newspaper reported that between 2014 and 2022, the suicide rate among Taiwanese aged 15 to 24 more than doubled, even as the overall rate declined.
SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYS A PART
Taiwanese social enterprise Teacher Chang Foundation, which offers mental health counselling, said about a quarter of those reaching out to its counsellors are below 30 years old.
The chairwoman of its Taipei branch, Ms Liu Su Fang, said her young clients often express doubts about whether their job will lead to good prospects, or if they will be able to attain a steady income and stable livelihood.
“Some even worry whether they would be able to afford a home, or have a family,” Ms Liu said.
Another non-profit organisation John Tung Foundation said the prolonged use of social media has contributed to low self-esteem among young people and made them more susceptible to symptoms of depression.
“Our study shows that those who spend more than six hours a day on the internet, their depressed level would be higher than other young people,” said the foundation’s mental health centre director Yeh Ya Hsing.
“One reason is because when you’re on social media, you are more prone to make comparisons such as: Why is everyone so happy? Why is everyone better than me? Why are they prettier?”
Mr Ivan Yeo, deputy director and lived experience lead at Asian Family Services in New Zealand, pointed to another factor: the COVID-19 pandemic.
During that period, there was also an increase in knowledge and understanding of what mental health was, Mr Yeo told CNA’s East Asia Tonight programme.
