Vietnamese court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, rejecting her appeal against convictions for embezzlement and bribery in a landmark $12 billion fraud case, according to state media.
Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was initially sentenced to death in April for her central role in Vietnam’s largest financial fraud case to date.
The High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled there was no justification to reduce the penalty, reported VnExpress, an online newspaper.
However, the report noted that if Lan repays three-quarters of the embezzled funds while on death row, her sentence could potentially be commuted to life imprisonment.
Lan, a prominent figure in Vietnam’s business community, is among several executives and officials imprisoned during the country’s extensive anti-corruption campaign, dubbed the “Blazing Furnace.”
Prosecutors argued during the appeal that the scope of Lan’s crimes and their impact were unparalleled in Vietnam’s legal history. “The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in litigation history, and the embezzled funds are extraordinarily large and unrecoverable,” the prosecution stated, as quoted by state-run VietnamNet.
Her actions, they added, have severely disrupted various sectors, including the financial market and the economy.
Lan’s lawyer highlighted mitigating factors, such as her admission of guilt, expressions of remorse, and partial repayment of the embezzled funds. However, prosecutors deemed these efforts insufficient for leniency.
Reuters was unable to reach Lan’s legal representatives for comment.
A Vietnamese court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, rejecting her appeal against convictions for embezzlement and bribery in a landmark $12 billion fraud case, according to state media.
Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was initially sentenced to death in April for her central role in Vietnam’s largest financial fraud case to date.
The High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled there was no justification to reduce the penalty, reported VnExpress, an online newspaper.
However, the report noted that if Lan repays three-quarters of the embezzled funds while on death row, her sentence could potentially be commuted to life imprisonment.
Lan, a prominent figure in Vietnam’s business community, is among several executives and officials imprisoned during the country’s extensive anti-corruption campaign, dubbed the “Blazing Furnace.”
Prosecutors argued during the appeal that the scope of Lan’s crimes and their impact were unparalleled in Vietnam’s legal history. “The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in litigation history, and the embezzled funds are extraordinarily large and unrecoverable,” the prosecution stated, as quoted by state-run VietnamNet.
Her actions, they added, have severely disrupted various sectors, including the financial market and the economy.
Lan’s lawyer highlighted mitigating factors, such as her admission of guilt, expressions of remorse, and partial repayment of the embezzled funds. However, prosecutors deemed these efforts insufficient for leniency.
Reuters was unable to reach Lan’s legal representatives for comment.
Lan retains the right to seek a review of her case under Vietnam’s cassation or retrial procedures.
Her 2022 arrest triggered a significant run on Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of Vietnam’s largest private banks. SCB, which was heavily implicated in the fraud, was largely owned by Lan through proxies.
According to documents reviewed by Reuters, Vietnam’s central bank had injected $24 billion in “special loans” into SCB by April as part of an “unprecedented” rescue effort.
In addition to the death penalty, Lan received a life sentence in a separate trial in October, where she was convicted of fraudulently acquiring property, money laundering, and illegal cross-border money transfers.
