Billions diverted

Death sentence against manager for fraud remains in place

Truong My Lan(Bild: APA/AFP)

In Vietnam, a court has confirmed the death sentence against real estate magnate Truong My Lan for her role in a billion-dollar fraud case. According to state media reports, the Supreme People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected an appeal by the manager in the country's biggest corruption case on Tuesday.

If she succeeds in paying back three quarters of the embezzled sum of almost twelve billion euros from prison, the death sentence could still be commuted to life imprisonment, the online newspaper "VnExpress" reported. No comment was initially available from Lan's lawyers.

The manager in court: 

Diverted 11.6 billion euros from a bank with accomplices
As CEO of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, Lan was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violating banking regulations. In the appeal trial, her lawyers pleaded for mitigating circumstances because the 68-year-old had shown remorse and paid back some of the money.

The investigators argued that this was not enough. The court based its rejection on the fact that Lan's offense had a major impact on society, the financial markets and the economy.

According to the investigators, Lan and her accomplices allegedly diverted more than 304 trillion dong (around twelve billion euros) from the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which she de facto controlled via dozens of principals. From the beginning of 2018 until October 2022, when the state rescued SCB after a run on its deposits, Lan allegedly appropriated large sums of money by brokering unlawful loans to shell companies. Dozens of other defendants in the case received sentences ranging from three years' probation to life imprisonment.