Vietnam tycoon’s death row appeal to begin in November

During her first trial, Truong My Lan, center, was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to $27 billion. (AFP)

• Property developer Truong My Lan was found guilty in April of swindling cash and sentenced to death
• A total of 48 defendants are appealing, including Lan, and the trial is scheduled to end on November 25

HANOI: The appeal trial of a Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27 billion will begin in November, state media said Wednesday.
Property developer Truong My Lan was found guilty in April of swindling cash from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) — which prosecutors said she controlled — and sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.
Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims.
“The High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City has issued the decision to open an appeal trial for Truong My Lan and accomplices in the first Van Thinh Phat case on November 4,” state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper said, referring to the major real estate developer of which Lan was chair.
A total of 48 defendants are appealing, including Lan, and the trial is scheduled to end on November 25, the newspaper added, citing the court.
The announcement comes days after Lan was convicted of money laundering and jailed for life in a separate case.
During her first trial, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to $27 billion — equivalent to around six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP.
The court ordered Lan to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.
Eighty-five others were also sentenced on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
They were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite.
Between 2012 and 2022, Lan used nearly 1,300 fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90 percent stake, the court found.
Her driver transported the equivalent of more than $4.4 billion in cash from SCB’s headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City to her nearby home and Van Thinh Phat’s head office, state media reported, citing the police investigation.