Vietnam sentences death row tycoon to life imprisonment for money laundering

A Vietnamese real estate tycoon was convicted on Thursday of fraudulently obtaining property worth billions of dollars and sentenced to life in prison, in a case that has been a centrepiece of the government’s crackdown on corruption.

The trials were broken into two parts due to the number of allegations against her, and Thursday’s verdict adds to Lan’s legal troubles as she awaits the appeal of her death sentence to be heard.

Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in the past decade and executed more than 400 prisoners. It is a possible sentence for 14 different crimes but is generally only applied in cases of murder and drug trafficking.

“Standing here today is a price too expensive for me to pay. I consider this my destiny and a career accident,” the VNexpress online newspaper quoted Lan, the chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, as telling the judges in her closing statement last week.

“For the rest of my life, I will never forget that my actions have affected tens of thousands of families.”