A Vietnamese court on Thursday handed down a life sentence to real estate tycoon Truong My Lan on financial fraud charges, after she was sentenced to death in a separate trial in April, Vietnamese media reported.
Lan, chairwoman of the board of directors of property developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was found guilty of obtaining property by fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers, state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre reported.
Lan is among senior businessmen and government officials jailed as part of a multi-year anti-corruption campaign known as “Blazing Furnace.” Her companies are accused of illegally raising more than VND30 trillion ($1.2 billion) by issuing bonds to investors, police said in a statement released ahead of the trial.
Lan is also accused of illegally transferring $4.5 billion into and out of Vietnam and laundering VND445 trillion ($18.1 billion), the statement said.
The judges said Lan admitted many of her crimes but denied allegations that she directed the bond issue, Tuoi Tre reported.
In April, a Vietnamese court sentenced Lan to death for her involvement in the fraud scheme, the biggest corruption case in the country’s history. Another 84 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment.
Her arrest in 2022 caused a stir at one of the country’s largest private banks by deposits, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which was at the centre of the fraud and largely owned by Lan through her proxies.
