DEATH Penalty – this was the grave punishment issued by a court in southern Vietnam to billionaire Truong My Lan for her involvement in the country’s biggest financial fraud scheme.
Prosecutors in Ho Chi Minh issued the verdict after a real estate tycoon was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking rules.
She was sentenced to death for the embezzlement charges as well as 20 years in prison for each of the other two offenses.
The 67-year-old chairwoman of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was also accused of bribing officials to carry out the fraud.
Between 2012 and 2022, Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank through “thousands of ghost companies” and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses amounting to $27 billion.
The court demanded that she compensate the bank $26.9 million.
Prosecutors said the property tycoon showed no remorse and even blamed her subordinates during the trial.
She was formally charged with fraud amounting to $12.5 billion which equates to nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP.
Her niece, Truong Hue Van, the chief executive of the real estate firm Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for assisting her aunt in committing the crime.
The case is part of a wider anti-corruption crackdown by the government of Vietnam.
