A Vietnamese court on Thursday sentenced real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death for her role in a 304 trillion dong ($12.46 billion) financial fraud case, Vietnamese media reported.
Lan, chairwoman of the board of directors of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violating banking regulations following a trial in Ho Chi Minh City’s business centre, state media said. A family member told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity:
“We will keep fighting to see what we can do.”
Lan pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement and bribery, Nguyen Huy Thiep, one of Lan’s lawyers, told Reuters.
“Of course she will appeal the verdict,” he added noting she was sentenced to death for the embezzlement charge and to 20 years each for the other two charges of bribery and violations of banking regulations.
Thanh Nien newspaper reported that 84 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from suspended sentences of three years to life imprisonment. Lan’s husband, Hong Kong property magnate Eric Chu, was given a nine-year prison sentence for aiding his wife. Her niece Truong Hue Van, 34, who is the CEO of a property management firm, received 17 years.
Lan started selling cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City’s central market to help her mother, she told judges during her trial, state media reported.
She later set up her Van Thinh Phat property company in 1992, the same year she married, state media reported.
She was found guilty along with her accomplices of embezzling more than 304 trillion dong from Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which she effectively controlled through dozens of proxies despite rules strictly limiting large shareholdings in lenders, investigators said.
From early 2018 to October 2022, when the state bailed out SCB after a frenzy of demand for its deposits caused by Lan’s arrest, she embezzled large sums by making illegal loans to shell companies, investigators said. State newspaper VnExpress cited the jury as saying:
“The defendant’s actions not only violate the property management rights of individuals and organizations but also put SCB under scrutiny, eroding people’s trust in the leadership of the Party and State.”
Lan was found guilty of bribing officials to persuade authorities to overlook her, including paying $5.2 million to central bank chief inspector Do Thi Nhan, who was sentenced to life in prison.
Lan’s trial, which began on 5 March and ended ahead of schedule, was one of the dramatic results of an anti-corruption campaign that ruling Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong has promised to eradicate for years.
Vietnam applies the death penalty mainly for violent offences, but also for economic crimes. Human rights groups say the country has executed hundreds of convicts in recent years, mostly by lethal injection.
