Be and his family members once controlled two banks, a real estate firm, a hospital, and a securities firm.

On May 29, the participants at the 2023 annual general meeting of the Trieu An Private General Hospital JSC appointed Tram Be, 64, as a member of the board of directors of the company for the 2022-2027 term.

Be has completed two criminal sentences with a total of seven years in prison.

Prior to that, Be was the founder and president of Trieu An Hospital. But he left the post because of the criminal case at SouthernBank and Sacombank in 2017.

Trieu An’s financial reports no longer mention Be name on the list of members of the board of directors.

The historic takeover deal in the finance and banking market wrapped up in 2017. Dang Van Thanh, called the ‘father’ of Sacombank, left the bank and returned to the place where he started.

Meanwhile, Tram Be, who was then a successful tycoon, successfully merged two banks. However, he could not protect his achievement. He had to give up all his assets at the bank and take other responsibilities during the bad debt settlement process after the merger, and was then sent to prison.

Tram Be was a well-known name in the Vietnamese business world in 2013-2016. Called a discreet tycoon, Be was known as the businessman who controlled two banks, and one leading real estate firm with a large land bank in HCMC. He also was the owner of a hospital, a gold, silver and jewelry company, and a securities company. Be was listed among the top wealthy families in Vietnam.

In 2012, securities investors were surprised by the news that Tram Khai Hoa, the youngest son of Be, became a member of the board of directors of Sacombank, the youngest member (24 years old) in the history of the bank.

Just a short time later, Be appeared as the leader of the historic takeover deal in Vietnam’s banking sector. He was the person behind the group of shareholders (holding 51 percent of voting shares) who authorized Eximbank to re-elect the entire leadership of Sacombank.

At that time, Tram Khai Hoa was holding 21 million STB shares (2.1 percent), worth VND500 billion. Meanwhile, Tram Trong Ngan, born in 1981, elder son of Be, was holding 48 million (4.9 percent), worth VND1.1 trillion. Ngan was also president of Phuong Nam Securities, holding millions of shares of the company.

As of the end of 2016, Ngan had 4.73 percent of shares. However, the value of the shares had become much higher because Sacombank’s capital scale increased sharply after the merger with Southern Bank.

A report showed that by the end of 2016, Be and other individuals held 9.5 percent of Sacombank’s capital.

Before merging with Sacombank, Be’s family held the controlling stake at Southern Bank. Be’s daughter – Tram Thuyet Kieu – was deputy CEO of Southern Bank, while the ownership ratio of his family members totalled over 17 percent.

In the real estate sector, Be and relevant individuals held 15 percent of shares of BCI, which possessed a huge land bank in HCM City, which was later sold to Khang Dien Land.

It is said that the total assets of Be’s family might be much higher if assets belonging to unlisted companies, such as Trieu An Hospital and Son Son Co Ltd, are counted.

Sources said Be’s family owns assets worth $100 million in the US and a 30-hectare castle in Vietnam.

However, their position later declined. Be left banks and divested from the Binh Chanh Investment and Construction. He resigned from the post of vice president of Sacombank in November 2015.

In 2017, Be was arrested for the wrongdoings in a case related to the Construction Bank.

Regarding Trieu An Hospital, it reported a profit of VND41 billion in 2022.

Manh Ha