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Vietnamese investor fakes purchase of tiny Texas bank

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Vietnamese investor fakes purchase of tiny Texas bank

A Vietnamese company that donated funds to U.S. politicians and hired a prominent lobbyist falsely claimed that it purchased a Texas bank and then guaranteed green cards to foreign investors.

Tin Thanh Group, a Ho Chi Minh City-based company that claims to have operations in everything from gas stations to food production to finance, stated on its website that it purchased Oakwood Bank, a tiny, 117-year-old bank in Texas. But the bank's CEO and its attorneys deny that they ever talked with Tin Thanh management, and federal and state regulators say Tin Thanh does not own a U.S. banking license.

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Quyen Dinh Tran stands outside Oakwood Bank in July 2016, when the bank was known as Oakwood State Bank. The photo has been pulled from Tin Thanh Group's website.

Source: Tin Thanh Group website

Tin Thanh has made several investments in the U.S. over the last couple of years, buying properties in Minnesota and Florida and claiming to sponsor three in-progress EB-5 projects in the two states. The EB-5 program allows developers, usually American ones, to raise money from foreigners who can receive a visa for their investments.

Khoa Tran, CEO of Tin Thanh Industrial, the company's U.S. subsidiary, responded to emails from S&P Global Market Intelligence, saying the falsified bank purchase was a simple misunderstanding. He wrote that the company will update the website to remove the information, which had been done within hours of the email exchange.

Prior to the updates, the company's website showed a picture of Tin Thanh Group CEO Quyen Dinh Tran standing in front of the real Oakwood Bank in Oakwood, a small town 100 miles southeast of Dallas. There were also photos of Tran inside the bank and of the bank's charters framed on the wall.

Tin Thanh has been claiming to own Oakwood Bank for quite some time. Khoa Tran filed a Minnesota business license for Tin Thanh Oakwood Bank Corp. back in June 2016. But the company does not have a banking charter, and it is against Minnesota law to use the word "bank" in a business name without a charter. There is a potential fine of $100 per day of violation. Minnesota's banking regulator is looking into the matter, said Ross Corson, communications director for the state's Commerce Department. The U.S. Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. also confirmed that Tin Thanh does not have a banking charter.

Khoa Tran wrote in an email that the company was not aware of the Minnesota law and is dissolving the license immediately. He said the company did no banking activity and was "simply a holding company."

Tin Thanh's website told a different story. The website stated that the company would return EB-5 funds within 90 days if U.S. authorities rejected the investor's visa application, with the banking entity backing the guarantee. The site also stated that the bank "empowers us to better assist our EB-5 investors." Further, the company guaranteed that investors would receive a green card.

Those guarantees could be problematic. Steve Blando, public affairs officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said developers cannot guarantee green cards nor can they promise money will not be lost.

"Investors are supposed to be 100% at risk. There can be no guarantees," said Salvatore Picataggio, an immigration lawyer in Florida.

Khoa Tran wrote in another email that the website's EB-5 information was not quite right, either. He wrote that the company is involved in just two EB-5 projects, one in Minnesota awaiting government approval that cannot be discussed due to a nondisclosure agreement. He wrote that the company plans to invest in a Florida project that has received EB-5 approval from the federal government, but he added that Tin Thanh is not currently raising capital for either project.

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Quyen Dinh Tran (far right) during President Donald Trump's visit to Vietnam in November 2017, according to Tin Thanh Group's website.

Source: Tin Thanh Group website

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Bottom: Quyen Dinh Tran (center) posing with Vice President Mike Pence (left) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (right) in June 2017.

Source: Tin Thanh Group website

Over the last year, Tin Thanh's executives have become more involved politically in the U.S. Khoa Tran has donated $103,400 to Republicans in 2017, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that total, $96,000 has gone to national Republican committees with the remainder going to Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and a Republican political action committee.

In 2016, Tin Thanh Electricity Steam Industrial Corp., another company led by Khoa Tran, paid the Podesta Group $50,000 for lobbying activities, according to disclosure forms. According to media reports, the Podesta Group was one of the largest and most influential lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., before it had to wind down operations in November after the company was named in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager who now faces money-laundering and other charges. The Podesta Group has not been charged with any crimes. Tin Thanh was one of 109 clients of the Podesta Group in the first half of 2016.

On Tin Thanh Group's website, CEO Quyen Dinh Tran can be seen posing for pictures nearby President Donald Trump, as well as alongside Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Based on the metadata of a photo with Kellyanne Conway, Trump's counselor, Khoa Tran and Quyen Dinh Tran attended a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser in March. Tin Thanh's website states that the meeting with Trump occurred during the president's November trip to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The real Oakwood Bank is a tiny institution with just $74 million of assets. There are no indications that Tin Thanh has ever had anything to do with the bank. Oakwood has undergone a recent ownership change, but there was "no Vietnamese investor involvement at all," said Larry Temple, an attorney who represented the bank for a decade before the recent purchase by Roy Salley, who now serves as Oakwood's chairman, president and CEO. Salley began negotiating the acquisition in January 2016, and it closed in April 2017, said Brian Johnson, managing director at Commerce Street Capital and an adviser on the deal.

Salley said the bank has informed its attorneys of Tin Thanh's false claims and plans to notify regulators and issue a press release.

It is unclear how much liability Oakwood Bank might face from Tin Thanh's activities, but it seems likely limited to reputation risk, said Hugh Wellons, an attorney with Spilman Thomas & Battle who has experience with corporate law.

"It's a bank version of stolen identity," said Wellons.