Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan sentenced to death in US$12.5 billion fraud case

Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death on Thursday after a court found her guilty of embezzlement, bribery and banking regulation violations in a fraud trial which saw her accused of plundering over US$12.5 billion from a bank using hundreds of ghost companies.

Details of the verdict have been widely shared on state media, offering a rare window into the rationale behind a court decision in a secretive country where the justice system is normally opaque. Late on Thursday, state media said Lan’s conviction for breaching bank laws that caused a loss of US$27 billion in total from the bank – including the embezzled billions – carried a 20-year sentence on its own.

In a five-week trial in Ho Chi Minh City which has gripped Vietnam, Lan, 67, alongside dozens of others, was accused of orchestrating a massive fraud at the Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), which drained the savings and investments of tens of thousands of people.

Prosecutors sought the death sentence for Lan – who is married to Hong Kong investor Eric Chu Nap-kee who is also on trial – due to the severity of the crime, which went to the heart of Vietnam’s financial and real estate industry.

“The defendant’s actions not only violated the asset management rights of individuals and organisations but also pushed SCB into a state of special control; eroding the public’s trust in the leadership of the Party and the State,” the verdict said according to state media.

Lan’s husband Eric Chu was on Thursday sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for violating banking regulations, according to state media, with scores more defendants still awaiting their sentences.

Communist-run Vietnam is one of the last Asian countries to carry out death