Tuesday, December 03, 2024 -Vietnamese property tycoon, Truong My Lan has lost her appeal against her de@th sentence for masterminding the world’s biggest bank fraud.
The 68-year-old is now in a race for her life because the law in Vietnam
states that if she can pay back 75% of what she took, her sentence will be
commuted to life imprisonment.
In April, the trial court found that Truong My Lan had secretly
controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and had
taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell
companies, amounting to a total of $44bn (£34.5bn).
Of that prosecutors say $27bn was misappropriated, and $12bn was judged
to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was
sentenced to d£ath.
It was a rare and shocking verdict as she is one of very few women in
Vietnam to be sentenced to d£ath for a white collar crime.
On Tuesday, December 3, the court said there was no basis to reduce
Truong My Lan's death sentence. However, she could still avoid execution if she
returns $9bn of the $12bn she embezzled.
During her trial Truong My Lan was sometimes defiant, but in the recent
hearings for her appeal against the sentence she was more contrite.
She said she was embarrassed to have been such a drain on the state, and
that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken.
Truong My Lan started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with
her mother. She began buying land and property after the Communist Party
introduced economic reform in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio
of hotels and restaurants.
When she was convicted and sentenced in April, she was the chairwoman of
a prominent real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in
the "Blazing Furnaces" anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist
Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.
All of the remaining 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced
to life in jail, while the rest -including Truong My Lan's husband and niece
were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended.
Truong My Lan’s lawyers said she was working as fast as she could to
find the $9bn needed. But cashing in her assets has proven difficult.
Some are luxury properties in Ho Chi Minh City which could, in theory,
be sold quite quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other
businesses or property projects.
In all the state has identified more than a thousand different assets
linked to the fraud. These have been frozen by the authorities for now. The BBC
understands the tycoon has also reached out to friends to raise loans for her
to help reach the target.
Her lawyers have argued for leniency from the judges on financial
grounds. They said that while she is under sentence of death it would be hard
for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and
so harder for her to raise $9bn.
She could do much better if under a life sentence instead, they say.
“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required
compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC before her appeal
was rejected.
“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets
are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can
create the most favourable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”
0 Comments