In one of the largest corruption trials in history, a court has condemned a prominent Vietnamese property mogul to death, with an estimated $27 billion in penalties.

Vietnamese Millionaire

Major developer Van Thinh Phat’s chair, Truong My Lan, was found guilty of embezzling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) for more than ten years.

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The defendant’s claims were all dismissed by a panel consisting of two judges and three carefully chosen jurors.

At the trial held in the southern economic center of Ho Chi Minh City, the verdict said that the defendant’s acts “eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state.”

In addition, 85 additional defendants in the five-week trial received sentences for offenses ranging from bribery and power abuse to theft and breaking financial regulations.
While the remaining four received sentences ranging from 20 years to three years suspended in jail, four were sentenced to life in prison.

Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, Lan’s spouse, received a nine-year prison sentence.

Lan stole $12.5 billion, but on Thursday, the prosecution revealed that the swindle had actually caused damages totaling $27 billion, or 6% of the nation’s GDP in 2023.

Lan, 67, was ordered by the court to provide nearly the whole amount of damages as compensation.

Even though the nation leads the world in executions, the death penalty is an exceptionally harsh punishment in this case, according to Amnesty International.

The arrests of Lan and the others were a part of a nationwide campaign against corruption that has recently taken up a large number of government officials and members of Vietnam’s economic elite.

In her farewell statement to the court last Thursday, she seemed to indicate that she was considering suicide.

She reportedly said, “In my desperation, I thought of death,” according to state media.

“I am furious that I was foolish enough to enter this extremely competitive industry — the banking sector — about which I know very little.”