A newly released audit has sharply escalated the dispute around Vietnamese film star Bao Nhi Vinh’s Lotus Lantern Studios, finding that the project reported selling 64 million kilowatt-hours of solar power to the grid while meter records supported just 8.6 million. The 2.1 trillion dong (about €72 million) complex sits on the edge of Ho Chi Minh City.
The audit, presented to shareholders on Monday, says the gap could leave 600 billion dong (about €20.5 million) in project financing subject to repayment or renegotiation. Vinh, who promoted the studio as a showcase for cleaner filmmaking, has been feuding with other investors over control and the project’s mounting costs since August.
The review covers electricity accounts from September 2023 to June 2026. It does not determine why the figures diverged or accuse any individual of deliberately misstating them; it says the mismatch cannot be reconciled with the available meter data and sales records.
A feud with a new price tag
Vinh announced in September that she would seek to sell her stake, saying the other investors had sidelined her from decisions at the 42-hectare (104-acre) complex. They disputed her account and said the studio needed fresh capital, not a change of control. The audit has now handed both sides a costly new argument.
“I put my name on this place because I believed it could change how films are made here,” Vinh said in a message shared with reporters. “I will not accept that a spreadsheet gets to decide what I knew.” Her representatives said she had not managed the studio’s power accounts and would ask for the underlying meter records.
Laura Kask, a director at the audit firm Bright Delta, said the review found “a material gap between the energy recorded as sold and the readings available to verify those sales”. She said auditors could not confirm that all the claimed output had entered the grid, but cautioned that the review was not a finding of fraud.
Lenders demand fresh figures
The financing dispute threatens to reach beyond the shareholders. The audit says lenders have asked the studio to provide reconciled accounts within 30 days; until then, a planned 600 billion dong extension remains on hold. The complex includes three sound stages, editing rooms and a rooftop solar array designed to supply both the studios and the local grid.
Jakob Hartl-Sauer, a media-finance consultant who reviewed the audit summary, said the reported gap was large enough to complicate future borrowing even if the project could explain it. “A lender will want every kilowatt-hour accounted for before it treats the solar revenue as dependable,” he said.
The studio has not announced a production shutdown, and its operators say current filming schedules remain in place. But the audit has changed the stakes of Vinh’s proposed exit: shareholders are due to meet next month, with the financing extension and a review of her sale request both on the agenda.
