(Reuters)– A court in Vietnam on Tuesday upheld the death sentence against real estate businesswoman Truong My Lan, after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery in a US$12 billion fraud case, state media reported.
Lan, president of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was sentenced to death in April for her role in Vietnam’s largest financial fraud case.
The Higher People’s Court in the southern Ho Chi Minh City ruled there was no basis to reduce Lan’s death sentence, the online newspaper reported. VnExpress.
However, the report noted that if Lan manages to return three-quarters of the embezzled money while on death row, his sentence may be commuted to life in prison.
Lan is one of the most prominent businesswomen and officials imprisoned in the communist country’s extensive anti-corruption campaign, known as “Burning Furnace.”
“The consequences caused by Lan are unprecedented in the history of litigation, and the amount of money embezzled is immensely large and unrecoverable,” the Prosecutor’s Office said during the appeal hearing, according to state media. VietnamNet.
“The defendant’s actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market and the economy,” he added.
State media cited Lan’s lawyer, who highlighted several mitigating circumstances, such as “having admitted guilt, shown remorse and returned some of the embezzled money,” but prosecutors felt that was not enough.
Reuters could not immediately reach Lan’s lawyers for comment.
Lan still has the right to request a review under cassation or retrial procedures in Vietnam.
Lan’s arrest in 2022 sparked a bank run on Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of the country’s largest private banks, which was at the center of the fraud and was largely controlled by Lan through front men. .
Documents reviewed by Reuters showed that the Central Bank of Vietnam had injected $24 billion in “special loans” by April to rescue the SCB, in an “unprecedented” measure.
In addition to the death penalty, Lan received a life sentence in a separate trial in October after being found guilty of fraudulently obtaining property, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers.
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