Female property developer Truong My Lan is sentenced to death by lethal injection after a five-week trial in Vietnam’s business hub Ho Chi Minh City

Businesswoman Truong My Lan, 68, was accused of masterminding a multi billion financial fraud – one of the biggest corruption cases in history

She received additional 20-year sentences for bribery and violating lending regulations and was ordered to pay nearly $27 million in compensatory damages

In the course of the investigation, prosecutors also seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan, as the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team, testified tha she had turned down a bribe of $5.2M

85 others also face verdicts and sentencing on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law

The sum involved $12.5 billion, about 3 percent of the country’s 2022 GDP, with total damages incurred estimated at $27 billion

Lan, the chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings, denied charges and blamed subordinates

85 others also face verdicts and sentencing on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of the country’s banking laws

Billionaire property magnate Truong My Lan [photo], the chairperson of Van Thinh Phat Holdings, [VTP], accused of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion, sitting through her trial Thursday at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court

A top Vietnamese property tycoon has been sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history. 
Truong My Lan will face death by lethal injection after a panel of three jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments and found her guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade.
The chair person of major developer Van Thinh Phat was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion, representing nearly 3 percent of the country’s 2022 GDP.
However, the total damages have been estimated at $27 billion.
The court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced the 68-year-old real estate tycoon, to death on mass-scale embezzlement charges.
She received additional 20-year sentences for bribery and violating lending regulations and was ordered to pay nearly $27 million in compensatory damages.
Lan, chairwoman of the real estate firm Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was convicted of fraudulently siphoning $12 billion from Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, [SCB], into shell companies.
She had seized control of 91.5 percent of SCB shares, allegedly using co-conspirators as proxies to circumvent strict laws against such extensive power over financial institutions, state media outlets reported.

Businesswoman Truong My Lan, [photo], 68, is accused of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank [SCB] over a decade. She has been condemned to die by lethal injection following her conviction for large scale fraud

Lan prosecutors said illegally controlled the SCB between 2012 to 2022 to siphon of these funds through thousands of ghost companies, aided by paying bribes to government officials.
‘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 the country’s banking laws.

Billionaire property magnate Truong My Lan, [center], was sentenced for embezzling $12.5 billion in Vietnam. The total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion, Prosecutors said on Thursday

Prosecutors called for My Lan [white shirt], to face the death sentence. Observers said this was an unusually severe punishment in such a case

Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion – a figure equivalent to six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP.
The death sentence is an unusually severe punishment in a financial crime case, with the last widely publicized death penalty for corruption charges in 2013.
The list of defendants includes former central bankers, ex-government officials and previous SCB executives.

At the conclusion of a five-week trial in business hub Ho Chi Minh City, Truong My Lan [second left, front row], seen in court where along with 85 others faced verdicts and sentencing on Thursday

Most of the accused sat in the courtroom with their heads bowed Thursday, although Lan could be seen fidgeting and looking up from the front row.
Prosecutors call for Lan to face the death sentence is an unusually severe punishment in such a case.
Lan’s arrest in October 2022 was among the most high-profile in an ongoing anti-corruption drive in Vietnam that has intensified since 2022. 
The so-called Blazing Furnace campaign has touched the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics. Former President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March after being implicated in the campaign.

VTP’s holdings include the Saigon One building, [left], and other buildings in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh – Lan is accused of illegally controlling the SCB between 2012 to 2022, siphoning funds through thousands of ghost companies, while bribing govt officials

At one point in 2022, Vietnamese stocks suffered a $40 billion wipe out following a series of big corporate arrests, rattling investor confidence at a delicate moment for the fast-growing economy. 
In this latest scandal, the scale of the fraud perpetrated by VTP has shocked the nation.
The company was among Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centers.

VTP’s property portfolio includes the 15-floor VTP Office Service Center [left], and the Sherwood Residence [right], where Lan previously lived. Prosecutors said $5.2 million allegedly given by Lan and some SCB bankers to state officials to conceal the bank’s violations and poor financial situation

From early 2018 through October 2022, when the state bailed out SCB after a run on its deposits, Lan appropriated large sums by arranging unlawful loans to shell companies, investigators said.
Lam will appeal the verdict, a family member told reporters before it was issued.
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.’

Testifying during the trial, Do Thi Nhan, [photo], former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team, told the court she had turned down a bribe of $5.2M

Lan denied the charges and blamed her subordinates, some of the defendants at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City

Analysts said the scale of the scam raises questions about the integrity of transactions by other banks or businesses, shaking investor confidence, especially foreign investment capital which potentially saw Vietnam as an alternative to the long shadows of China.
The relatively rare occurrence of protests in the one-party communist state, was seen after Lan’s arrest in October 2022. So far police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the Southeast Asian country.
Lan, who is married to a wealthy Hong Kong businessman also on trial, is accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 91 percent stake. Her husband, Eric Chu, a businessman from Hong Kong, was sentenced to nine years in prison for his alleged involvement in the fraud, according to state media.

The real estate tycoon was sentenced to death penalty following her convicted of allegations that she siphoned off an amount of $12.5 billion

Police say the scam’s victims are all SCB bondholders who cannot withdraw their money and have not received interest or principal payments since Lan’s arrest.
Prosecutors said during the trial they had seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan.
Authorities have also said $5.2 million allegedly given by Lan and some SCB bankers to state officials to conceal the bank’s violations and poor financial situation was the largest-ever bribe recorded in Vietnam.
The bribe was offered to Do Thi Nhan, the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team – who testified that the cash was handed to her in Styrofoam boxes by the former CEO of SCB, Vo Tan Van.
Realizing that they contained money, Nhan refused the boxes but Van declined to take them back.

A top Vietnamese luxury property tycoon – Do Anh Dung, [center], head of the Tan Hoang Minh group – was sentenced to eight years in prison last month

More than 4,400 people have been indicted during Vietnam’s corruption crackdown, across more than 1,700 graft cases, since 2021.
A top Vietnamese luxury property tycoon, Do Anh Dung,who is the head of the Tan Hoang Minh group – was sentenced to eight years in prison last month after he was found guilty of cheating thousands of investors in a $355 million bond scam.
The real estate sector in Vietnam has been hit particularly hard by the crackdown. An estimated 1,300 property firms withdrew from the market in 2023. In November, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s top politician, said that the anti-corruption fight would ‘continue for the long term.’