On October 23, 2026, the Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Enforcement Office holds the first auction of three downtown properties tied to Truong My Lan, chair of the board of Van Thinh Phat Group. Their combined starting price is over VND 334 billion.CafeF It sounds like a lot. Set against what more than 43,000 phase 2 victims are still waiting for, it is under 2%.
This article does not guess how the auction will go. As of writing, it has not taken place and there is no result. What we can do is measure this auction against the arithmetic of someone waiting for money, then walk through the two possible outcomes and what each means for them.
Three properties go under the hammer
According to the Ho Chi Minh City enforcement office, as relayed by CafeF on October 22, the three properties are the villa at 22B Nguyen Thi Dieu and the house at 142 Vo Van Tan in Xuan Hoa ward, plus the house at 151 Dong Khoi in Sai Gon ward.CafeF
- Villa at 22B Nguyen Thi Dieu: nearly 300 sq m of long-term urban residential land, starting price over VND 200 billion. It is the largest asset in the auction.
- House at 142 Vo Van Tan: 115.9 sq m of land, a six-storey building with basement and mezzanine, nearly 792 sq m of floor space, starting price over VND 94 billion.
- House at 151 Dong Khoi: 26.43 sq m of land with a three-storey house, starting price over VND 37.3 billion.
Outlets disagree on how many assets are in the session. Dan Tri, the same day, lists an additional apartment at 25 Dong Khoi, which lifts the combined starting price of four assets to over VND 374.8 billion.Dân trí The arithmetic below uses the three-asset figure. The conclusion does not change if the fourth is included.
How much compensation has been paid
In phase 2 of the Van Thinh Phat case, Ms. Lan is liable to compensate over VND 30,081 billion to more than 43,000 victims and others with related rights and obligations.CafeF According to VnExpress, these are people who received transferred bonds in the case.VnExpress
The enforcement authority has made 10 payouts totaling over VND 12,358 billion. The tenth alone was over VND 318 billion, drawn from asset sales and amounts repaid by related individuals and organizations.CafeF In each round, money is split among victims in proportion to what each is owed, so a small round means everyone receives a small extra slice.
From those two figures, victims have recovered about 41% of the obligation. The shortfall is around VND 17,700 billion, consistent with the roughly VND 18,000 billion that Nguoi Quan Sat cited the same day.Người Quan Sát
Now place the October 23 auction in this arithmetic. If all three assets sell at exactly the starting price, the proceeds of over VND 334 billion equal about 1.9% of the shortfall. Including the 25 Dong Khoi apartment per Dan Tri's figure, the share is still only about 2.1%. That is before enforcement and auction costs.
One thing the sources do not make clear. Ms. Lan must also meet phase 1 obligations to SCB bank. The October 22 notices say only that the auction serves to enforce legally effective judgments, and do not say which obligation the proceeds from these three assets are earmarked for. So the 2% figure is a ceiling on what this session could contribute to phase 2 victims, not an amount they are certain to receive.
Scenario one: a bidder at or above the starting price
The condition for this branch is specific: the session has qualified participants who have posted a deposit and bid at least the starting price. The available sources do not say how many people registered for each asset, so this article does not treat either branch as more likely.
The case history shows this branch does happen, and sometimes the winning price runs far above the starting price. According to Dan Tri, the house at 44 Tran Dinh Xu sold for VND 635 billion, and the property at 64-68 Tran Quoc Thao went for VND 647 billion.Dân trí Among luxury items, a Hermès bag with a starting price of over VND 1.7 billion drew a bid of VND 11.6 billion.Người Quan Sát
Even if all three assets find buyers, the money does not go straight to victims' accounts. The winning bidder must pay in full, the enforcement authority deducts costs under the rules, and only then is the remainder folded into a later payout, if the money is earmarked for phase 2. For someone waiting, this branch does not change the big picture: the shortfall shrinks by about 2%, and one more payout arrives.
Scenario two: no buyer, or only a partial sale
If an asset fails to sell, clause 3 of Article 83 of the 2025 Law on Civil Judgment Enforcement, effective July 1, 2026, requires the enforcement officer to decide on a price cut within 5 working days of receiving notice. Each cut may not exceed 10% of the starting price of the previous auction, and the reduced price becomes the starting price of the next session.Article 83
After the second price cut, if the auction still fails, the judgment creditor has the right to take the asset itself in offset of the amount owed, at the last reduced price. If they decline, the asset is cut again and re-auctioned.
The Lexus tied to Ms. Lan is a real example of this branch. According to Tien Phong, the car was first offered in May with a starting price of over VND 767 million. After repeated failures to find a buyer and successive price cuts, it sold in September for VND 600 million, and was handed to the buyer only on October 23.CafeF
From the first session to a sale took about four months, and the proceeds came in roughly one-fifth below the original starting price.
Apply that pace to a villa priced at over VND 200 billion, and the money from that asset slips back by many months, with each round of cuts able to shave up to a tenth off the proceeds. A hybrid outcome is also possible: one or two assets sell and the rest are re-auctioned. The sold portion then follows the first branch and the remainder follows the second.
Other large assets still waiting
The October 23 session is only one link in the chain. According to Dan Tri, the Ho Chi Minh City enforcement office has set starting prices for another group of properties worth about VND 482.6 billion in total, awaiting auction dates. The group includes land parcels in Long Phuoc ward, the largest a cluster of six parcels priced at VND 188.8 billion, plus the house at 90C Tran Quoc Toan priced at VND 33.5 billion.Dân trí
So the figure of over VND 480 billion cited by Nguoi Quan Sat and the VND 334 billion for the October 23 session are two different groups of assets with no overlap. Beyond these, the house at 123 Nguyen Hue has been valued at over VND 349.4 billion and the villa at 41 Nguyen Thi Dieu at over VND 204.6 billion, but neither has an auction date. The enforcement authority is still handling more than 600 other properties tied to Ms. Lan.Dân trí In Hanoi, her stake in Tan Viet Securities is still at the valuation stage.Người Quan Sát
Adding the October 23 session, the group of over VND 480 billion and the two valued assets above, the total at starting prices is about VND 1,370 billion, less than a tenth of the shortfall.Dân trí
Most of the remaining obligation will have to rest on hundreds of other assets and on large holdings with no price yet, such as the Tan Viet stake.
What this means for those waiting
In both branches the conclusion for victims is the same in direction and differs only in pace. The remainder will not arrive in one go but in many small payouts. The size of each depends on whether the large assets sell at the first session or go through several rounds of cuts. If the October 23 session sells in full, the payout pace holds. If it fails, the money from the three properties slips back by at least one more auction round and shrinks with each cut.
For anyone holding or weighing corporate bonds, this case puts a concrete number on what happens when an issuer commits fraud. After 10 payouts, bond buyers have recovered about 41%, and the rest depends on how fast each house, each plot of land and each car is sold.
The result of the October 23 session will be announced by the Ho Chi Minh City enforcement office or the auction organizer. That is the first signal of which branch these three assets fall into. The second, and more important for those waiting, is the announcement of the next payout and where its money comes from.