Vietnam Court Upholds Death Sentence for Real Estate Tycoon

HANOI (Reuters) – A court in Vietnam upheld a death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery in a high-profile $12 billion fraud case, state media reported.

Lan, chairwoman of the real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was sentenced to death in April for her role in what is Vietnam's biggest financial fraud case on record.

The High People's Court in southern Ho Chi Minh City found no basis to reduce Lan's death sentence, according to online newspaper VnExpress.

If Lan can return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row, her sentence might be commuted to life imprisonment, the report said.

She is among the most notable business executives and state officials jailed during the communist country's extensive anti-corruption campaign known as "Blazing Furnace."

The prosecution stated, "The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation, and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable," as reported by state-run VietnamNet.

They added, "The defendant's actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, and the economy."

Lan's lawyer mentioned mitigating circumstances such as her admission of guilt, showing remorse, and repaying part of the embezzled amount, but prosecutors deemed this insufficient.

Lan retains the right to request a review under Vietnam's cassation or retrial procedures.

Her arrest in 2022 led to a run on one of the country's largest private banks, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HM:VCB) (SCB), significantly owned by Lan through proxies.

Documents reviewed by Reuters disclosed that as of April, Vietnam's central bank had injected $24 billion in "special loans" into SCB in an "unprecedented" rescue effort.

In addition to the death sentence, Lan received a life sentence at a separate trial in October for obtaining property by fraud, money laundering, and illegal cross-border money transfers.