The court found the real estate magnate guilty of misappropriation. In the first trial, which ended in April, the judges had imposed the death penalty, against which an appeal is pending. Hanoi has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in recent decades and carried out more than 400 executions.
Hanoi () – New sentence, this time to life imprisonment, for businesswoman and real estate magnate Truong My Lan, 68, who in a first trial, which concluded in April, was sentenced to death in connection with a 12-year-old fraud. .5 million dollars, equivalent to 3% of Vietnam’s GDP in 2022. Today the criminal court of Ho Chi Minh City found the woman guilty of misappropriation of assets worth billions of dollars, in a crescendo of proceedings – and arrests – of the Hanoi government within the framework of the anti-corruption campaign behind which the internal struggle for power is hidden.
The trial was divided into two parts due to the numerous accusations against the magnate, and the guilty verdict issued today, which establishes the maximum sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the judges during the reading of the sentence, is added to the trials that follow earrings. Indeed, Lan is awaiting the verdict of appealing the death penalty in the first phase of the process.
Hanoi has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in recent decades and sent more than 400 prisoners to the executioner. Under Vietnam’s legal system, capital punishment is provided for 14 crimes, but is generally only applied in cases of murder and drug trafficking.
“Being here today is a very painful price that I must pay. “I consider it my destiny and an accident along the way,” real estate company president Van Thinh Phat told the judges in her final speech last week, as reported. VNexpress online. “For the rest of my life, I will never forget that my actions – concluded the businesswoman – affected tens of thousands of families.”
Another 33 people were tried as co-defendants in the case, but details of those verdicts were not made public. According to state media reports, in addition to obtaining property through fraud, Lan was also convicted of money laundering and illegally transferring money out of the country. According to the indictment, the woman would have raised up to $1.2 billion from almost 36,000 investors, issuing bonds illegally and fraudulently through four companies.
She was also found guilty of appropriating $18 billion and using companies she controlled to illegally transfer more than $4.5 billion into and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022. It is currently unclear whether she will appeal the verdict and still No date has been set for the death penalty appeal hearing.
Lan’s arrest in October 2022 (and subsequent capital punishment by lethal injection) is part of an anti-corruption campaign called “Burning Furnace” that began in 2016 and, six years later, has seen a marked acceleration that has hit and devastated to the highest levels of the country. Two presidents and two heads of government have been forced to resign in recent years, although this is just the tip of the iceberg, which includes hundreds of Communist Party officials at all levels, some of whom have been requested the death penalty.
Many people have been arrested or received disciplinary sanctions, in an attempt to stop a phenomenon that risks undermining the country’s economy, as demonstrated by the “crisis” of vehicle registration. According to the United Nations Development Program and other NGOs on the ground, corruption is so entrenched that in some provinces many people say they have to pay bribes just to obtain services and medical care, even in public hospitals.
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