Vietnam tycoon sentenced to death in fraud case
: A top Vietnamese property tycoon was sentenced to death on Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated $27 billion in damages.
A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defence arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade.
“The defendant’s actions... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City.
Lan denied the charges and blamed her subordinates.
After a five-week trial in business hub Ho Chi Minh City, 85 others also face verdicts and sentencing on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said on Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion — a figure equivalent to six per cent of the country’s 2023 GDP.
The death sentence is an unusually severe punishment in such a case.
She and the others were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite in recent years.
Lan appeared to say in final remarks to the court last week that she had thoughts of suicide.
“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.”
Hundreds of people began to stage protests in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, a relatively rare occurrence in the one-party communist state, after Lan’s arrest in October 2022.
Police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the Southeast Asian country.