Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan has lost his appeal against the death penalty for masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal, but his life could still be saved if he repays most of the funds he embezzled. .
Mr Lan, who founded property development company Van Tinh Phat, was sentenced to death in April for embezzling $12bn (£9.95bn) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), a case that has become a national scandal. It shocked me.
Ms Lann appealed the decision, asking the court to consider a more “lenient and humane approach”. But on Tuesday, judges upheld the death penalty, saying her crime had serious consequences and there were no mitigating circumstances, according to local media.
Under Vietnamese law, Ms Lan's life could be saved if she returns three-quarters of the embezzled assets, but this means she faces a desperate scramble to collect billions of dollars. means. If she does so, her sentence could be commuted to life in prison.
Mr Lan is a prominent Vietnamese businessman who, together with Mr Van Tinh Phat, owns a shopping mall, a port and a luxury residential complex in Ho Chi Minh City.
It was revealed in a court case earlier this year that although Lan had no direct control in SCB, he owned 91.5% of the bank's shares through friends, family and shell companies.
The court heard that over an 11-year period between 2012 and 2022, she created fake loan applications to withdraw funds from banks. The loans accounted for 93% of the total credit issued by banks, state media said. Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings suffered losses.
Reuters reports that the documents suggest Vietnam's central bank injected $24 billion in “special loans” into SCB to bail it out.
Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total loss was actually $27 billion, about 6% of the country's GDP last year.
She was tried along with 85 others, including former central bankers, government officials, and former SCB executives.
Ms Lan said last week that she was “distressed by the waste of national resources” and felt “deeply ashamed to be accused of this crime”.
The case is part of a broader national corruption crackdown known as the “Flaming Furnace” led by Nguyen Phu Trong, former general secretary of Vietnam's Communist Party, in which thousands of people have been charged.
In a separate case, Mr. Lan was convicted of money laundering in October and sentenced to life in prison.
