A Vietnamese real estate tycoon will soon find out if her life will be spared after being sentenced to death for a multimillion-dollar fraud.
Property developer Truong My Lan, 68, will wait to hear the verdict of an appeal in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.
She was convicted earlier this year of embezzling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which prosecutors said she controlled, and sentenced to death for fraud totaling $27 billion.
Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in SCB lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from victims.
In his official handwritten appeal of more than five pages seen by AFP, Lan said the death penalty was “too severe and harsh” and asked the court to consider a more “lenient and humane” approach.
Under Vietnamese law, Lan could escape the death penalty if he proactively returns three-quarters of the embezzled assets and is deemed to have sufficiently cooperated with authorities.
This would mean he would have to raise $9 billion to save his life, but he would spend a life behind bars.
However, prosecutors have argued that she did not comply with the conditions and emphasized that the consequences of her crime were “enormous and unprecedented.”
Property developer Truong My Lan, 68, will wait to hear the verdict of an appeal in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.
Lan was convicted earlier this year of embezzling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which prosecutors said she controlled, and sentenced to death for fraud totaling $27 billion.
Lan, who founded real estate development group Van Thinh Phat, told the Ho Chi Minh City court that “the quickest way” to return the stolen funds would be to “liquidate SCB and sell our assets to return the money to SBV and to the people.”
“I am pained by the waste of national resources,” Lan said last week, adding that she felt “very ashamed to be accused of this crime.”
Lan owned only five percent of SCB shares on paper, but at his trial the court concluded that he effectively controlled more than 90 percent through family, friends and staff.
The State Bank said in April that it had injected funds into the SCB to stabilize it, without disclosing the amount.
Among the assets Lan and Van Thinh Phat own are a shopping mall, a port and luxury housing complexes in the business center of Ho Chi Minh City.
During her first trial in April, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to $27 billion, equivalent to about six percent of the country’s GDP. country in 2023.
Lan and dozens of defendants, including senior central bank officials, were arrested as part of a nationwide crackdown on corruption dubbed the “flaming oven” that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite.
A total of 47 other defendants have requested reduced sentences on appeal.
Last month, Lan was convicted of money laundering and jailed for life in a separate case.