Vietnam's biggest fraudster faces death penalty, unless £7 billion is repaid
The death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was upheld on Tuesday in Vietnam's largest fraud case, the scale of which has raised concerns about the country's wider economy.
However, the court said her sentence could be reduced to life in prison if she reimburses three quarters of what she took - equivalent to around £7 billion.
Lan was convicted of embezzlement and bribery over the fraud amounting to around £9 billion, nearly 3% of Vietnam’s 2022 GDP.
As chairperson of the Van Thinh Phat real estate firm, Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that cost the bank £21 billion in losses.
Her lawyers argued that she had repaid the money, but the court disagreed since there were legal issues with some of the seized properties and prosecuting agencies couldn't assess their value, VN Express reported.
Lan's lawyers also noted several mitigating circumstances; she had admitted guilt, showed remorse and had paid back part of the amount.
“I feel pained due to the waste of national resources,” she said last week, state media reported.
But the court said her violations had negatively impacted banking, caused public disorder and eroded people’s trust, VN Express said.
Under Vietnamese law, death sentences aren't carried out immediately and there is an extended legal process, Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, said.
He added that Lan could seek another review of the case or a presidential pardon to reduce her sentence.
“Moreover, if she repays at least three-quarters of the misappropriated funds, the court may consider commuting her sentence to life imprisonment,” he said.
Her arrest was among the most high-profile in an anti-corruption drive in Vietnam.
The scale of her fraud shocked the nation with analysts raising questions about the practices of other banks and businesses.
Lan and her family had set up the Van Thing Phat company in 1992 and it grew into one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centres.
This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry.
She orchestrated the 2011 merger of the SCB bank with two other lenders in coordination with Vietnam’s central bank.
The court said that she used this to tap SCB for cash and, according to government documents, owned more than 90% of the bank while approving thousands of loans to “ghost companies.”
These loans, according to state media, found their way to her and she bribed officials to cover her tracks.
Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in the past decade and executed more than 400 prisoners.
It is a possible sentence for 14 different crimes but is typically applied for cases of murder and drug trafficking.
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