Vietnam Tycoon Truong My Lan Sentenced to Death in $12.5bn Fraud Case

Truong My Lan sentenced to death in $12.5bn fraud case.

Vietnam Tycoon Truong My Lan Sentenced to Death in $12.5bn Fraud Case: A Vietnamese court has sentenced a property tycoon to death for her role in a $12.5 billion financial fraud case, the country's biggest ever.

On Thursday, state media reported that Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, had been convicted of embezzlement, bribery and violating banking regulations.

Through thousands of ghost companies and bribery payments to government officials, the 67-year-old illegally controlled the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022.

She was accused of appropriating assets worth about 3 percent of Vietnam's GDP in 2022, and prosecutors seized more than 1,000 of her properties.

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During her final testimony to the court last week, Lan said that she was contemplating suicide after denying the charges against her and blaming subordinates.

“In my desperation, I thought of death,” she said, 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.”

Despite the severity of the case, the court attributed Lan's harsh penalty to the fact that he was at the helm of a sophisticated and orchestrated criminal enterprise.

In its report, VnExpress quoted the judgment as saying that her actions violated the property rights of individuals and organizations, as well as eroding trust in the Party and State's leadership.

Among the 86 on trial, her husband, Hong Kong investor Eric Chu Nap-Kee, was accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from a Saigon bank, in which she owned a 90 percent stake. One of Lan's nieces, Truong Hue Van, was the CEO of Van Thinh Phat.

A podcast host based in Ho Chi Minh City, Michael Tatarski, said Lan and her family were highly obscure despite their wealth, with little information or images available online.

As reported by Thanh Nien newspaper, 84 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment.

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