She is considered the mastermind of a $27 billion scam. A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday confirmed on appeal the death sentence of Truong My Lan, the former boss of a real estate giant who orchestrated the biggest financial scandal in Vietnam. The judges considered that there was “no reason” to reduce the sentence handed down at first instance against the former leader.
But if she returns three quarters of the embezzled sums, the judges specified that the death sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment.
A scandal of historic proportions
In a blue shirt, Truong My Lan appeared in the front row of the courtroom in the morning. At her side, her husband, Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, accused of violating banking rules. His nine-year prison sentence was shortened to seven years on appeal. More than a hundred lawyers participated in the appeal trial, which lasted a month, according to state media.
The businesswoman stole billions of dollars over a decade, via a set-up of fraudulent bonds passing through Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), more than 90% owned by her group, Van Thinh Phat, specializing in real estate.
The scandal, of historic proportions, shocked public opinion in Vietnam, provoking rallies, exceptionally tolerated by the communist power. Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings with SCB lost their money.
The trials against the leader illustrate both the neglect of the banking sector, during a period of rapid and unprecedented enrichment in the country, and the anti-corruption campaign led vigorously by the authorities.
“Huge” damage
In his hand-written appeal request, consulted by AFP, Truong My Lan deplored the death sentence handed down at first instance, a verdict “too severe and harsh”, calling on the court to adopt a “more humane approach and indulgent. To repay its debt, it suggested liquidating SCB and selling its assets. Truong My Lan and Van Thinh Phat notably own shares in large-scale real estate projects – skyscrapers, shopping centers, ports, housing estates – in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital of the south of the country.
She handed over more than 600 family properties to justice, said her team of lawyers, who believe that the returned property – of an undisclosed value – should allow her to benefit from the judges’ leniency. Vietnamese law allows those sentenced to death to escape execution if three quarters of ill-gotten assets are returned, or in the event of cooperation considered sufficient with the authorities.
Prosecutors said last week that she did not meet the conditions, and that the consequences of her crime were “enormous and unprecedented.” Truong My Lan’s lawyer indicated Tuesday that an execution, which is carried out by lethal injection in Vietnam, would not take place for several years in all likelihood.
The banking sector, between corruption and laxity
The court also upheld on appeal the life sentence handed down to a central bank official, who accepted a bribe of five million dollars to remain silent about the businesswoman’s misdeeds. In another part of the scandal, she was sentenced to life in prison in mid-October for money laundering, fraud, and illegal cross-border money transfer.
The central bank said in April it had injected funds to stabilize the SCB, without revealing how much. The extraordinary affair illustrates the weaknesses of the Vietnamese banking sector, between corruption and laxity in the application of rules, in an economy which has been running at full capacity for several years, according to experts.
A court can impose the death penalty in Vietnam for crimes considered the most serious, particularly those related to drug trafficking. Statistics on the number of executions and convictions are classified as a state secret.
