A Vietnamese real estate tycoon has been arrested on suspicion of financial fraud, the police said on Saturday.
The arrest of Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of Vanh Thinh Phat Holdings Group comes as the south-east Asian country broadens it years-long anti-graft drive.
Lan is accused of illegally issuing bonds to raise trillions of Dong ( tens of millions in Sterling ) from investors between 2018 and 2019.
"Further investigation is underway to clarify the frauds," the ministry said.
Lan's company did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Vietnam recently broadened its anti-graft drive with a series of high-profile corporate arrests, including top stockbrokers, property developers and even regulators.
Three others accused of involvement in Lan's case were also arrested, the police-run ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry said on Friday there had been irregularities in Van Thinh Phat Holdings' acquisition of several state-owned land
slots at prime locations in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
Rumours about the imminent arrest of Lan earlier on social media this week had triggered a run on Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) over suspicions of ties between Lan and the bank.
Vietnam's central bank on Saturday reassured depositors at SCB and said it was monitoring the situation there.
"The State Bank of Vietnam affirmed that it will have solutions and policies in accordance with the law to ensure the rights and interests of depositors, maintain the stability of SCB in particular and the system of credit institutions in general," the central bank said in a statement. Calls to SCB went unanswered on Saturday.
In January, a woman once dubbed the "world's youngest self-made female billionaire" was facing 80 years behind bar for a similar scheme in which she defrauded her investors out of millions.
After a lengthy trial which captured significant media attention, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on four of 11 counts relating to defrauding investors, as well as conspiring to do so.
Blood testing startup Theranos claimed to be revolutionary but in fact used tech which did not work as promised.
Prosecutors said Holmes, 37, swindled private investors between 2010 and 2015 by convincing them that the company's small machines could run a range of tests with a few drops of blood from a finger prick.
Holmes, who was dubbed the "next Steve Jobs" by Inc. magazine and championed by Forbes as being "the world's youngest self-made female billionaire", was convicted on charges of defrauding three other investors, as well as conspiring to do so.
She was acquitted on three counts of defrauding patients who paid for tests from Theranos, and a related conspiracy charge. The jury could not reach a decision on three counts related to individual investors.
