HO CHI MINH CITY, July 21 (Xinhua) -- A Vietnamese businesswoman, winner of the Mrs. Vietnam Pageant 2009, went on trial here Thursday charged with appropriating property through swindling.
Truong Thi Tuyet Nga, 55, general director of a local construction company, who won the "Successful Lady" title at the Mrs. Vietnam Pageant 2009, and became the second runner-up at the Mrs. Global Vietnam contest in 2012 in the United States, appeared in the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court.
Some Vietnamese banks, companies and individual investors accused Nga of swindling a total of nearly 900 billion Vietnamese dong (40 million U.S. dollars) out of them.
According to prosecutors, in 2010, Nga launched a bogus project on building a complex of a high-grade apartment block and an office building in an area of 35,000 square meters in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City. She used the bogus project to do business with the banks, companies and investors.
Nga has been detained since 2013 when she was general director of a hospital company in the city.
