According to official media, a Vietnamese court on Tuesday affirmed real estate magnate Truong My Lan’s death sentence after dismissing her appeal against her conviction for embezzlement and bribery in a well-known $12 billion fraud case.
Due to her involvement in the largest financial fraud case in Vietnam’s history, Lan, the head of the real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was given a death sentence in April.
According to the online publication VnExpress, the High People’s Court in southern Ho Chi Minh City found no justification for lowering Lan’s death sentence.
According to the report, Lan’s sentence can be commuted to life in prison, provided he can refund three-quarters of the money that was embezzled while he was on death row.
She is among the most well-known state officials and business leaders imprisoned during the communist nation’s protracted anti-graft operation, nicknamed “Blazing Furnace.”
According to the state-run online daily VietnamNet, the prosecution stated during the appeal hearing that “the consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation, and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable.”
It stated that the defendant’s conduct had an impact on the economy, the financial system, and many facets of society.
Lan had other mitigating circumstances, such as “having admitted guilt, showing remorse, and paying back part of the amount of money embezzled,” according to her attorney, who was quoted by state media. However, prosecutors felt it was inadequate.
Lan’s attorneys were not immediately available for comment by Reuters.
Under Vietnam’s cassation or retry procedures, Lan is still able to ask for a review.
Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which was at the heart of the scam and was primarily owned by Lan through her proxies, saw a run on deposits after Lan’s arrest in 2022.
According to documents Reuters examined, Vietnam’s central bank has made an “unprecedented” rescue of SCB by injecting $24 billion in “special loans” as of April.
After being found guilty of obtaining property through fraud, money laundering, and unlawful cross-border money transfers, Lan was given a life sentence in addition to the death penalty during a second trial in October.
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