A Vietnamese appeals court upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan for her role in her country’s largest financial fraud case.
Lan was the chairwoman of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat when she was formally charged with a $12.5 billion fraud. Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank. The level of her fraud equaled nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP.
Lan was sentenced to death in April. UPI reported the People’s High Court of Ho Chi Minh City said there were no mitigating factors to reduce her sentence. However, Vietnamese law allows the court to reduce the death sentence to life imprisonment if Lan returns three-fourths of the $12.5 billion she was convicted of embezzling – in this case, $9 billion.
Lan’s trial included 84 defendants, including her husband Eric Chu Nap-kee, a Hong Kong investor. All the defendants were convicted.
Photo: Truong My Lan, courtesy of Van Thinh Phat
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