Property tycoon sentenced to death over $27 billion fraud
A Vietnamese billionaire was sentenced to death on Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, an estimated $27 billion in damages - a figure equivalent to six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, after looting from one of the country's biggest banks, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) for over a decade.
“The defendant’s actions... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” the verdict read at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City.
After a five-week trial, 85 others were also charged for their involvement in the fraud, with charges ranging from from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
Four were given life imprisonment, while others received jail terms ranging between 20 years and three years suspended. Lan's husband was Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Lan and the others were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown.
Lan was initially believed to have embezzled $12.5 billion, but on Thursday prosecutors have said that the total damages caused by the fraud now amounted to $27 billion.
The property tycoon was convicted of taking out $44bn in loans from the bank, according to the BBC, with prosecutors saying that $27 billion of this may never be recovered.
The court ordered Lan to to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.
It is also reported that she is one of very few women in Vietnam to be sentenced to death for a white collar crime.
“In my desperation, I thought of death,” Lan said in her final remarks to the court, according to state media.
“I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment -- the banking sector -- which I have little knowledge of.”
Police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scam, and many of them were unhappy with the verdict.
One 67-year-old Hanoi resident told the AFP that she had hoped Lan would receive a life sentence so she could fully witness the devastating impact of her actions.
“Many people worked hard to deposit money into the bank, but now she’s received the death sentence and that’s it for her,” they said.
“She can’t see the suffering of the people.”
The resident has so far been unable to retrieve the $120,000 she invested with SCB.
Police have said that many of the victims are SCB bondholders, who cannot withdraw their money and have not received interest or principal payments since Lan’s arrest.
Authorities have also reportedly seized over 1000 properties belonging to Lan.
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