Vietnam Billionaire Sentenced To Death For Multi-Billion Dollar Fraud

A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges has rejected all defence arguments by Truong My Lan, the chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. The verdict at the trial in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City stated that “the defendant’s actions eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state.” The trial lasted for five weeks, and a total of 85 others were also sentenced on various charges including bribery, abuse of power, appropriation, and violations of banking law. Four of them received life imprisonment, while the others received jail terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended.

Lan’s husband, Hong Kong billionaire Eric Chu Nap Kee, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors have now stated that the total damages caused by the scam amount to $27 billion. The court has ordered Lan, 67, to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation. This is an unusually severe punishment in such a case, although the country is a leading executioner globally, according to Amnesty International.

Lan 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 seemed to express thoughts of suicide in her final remarks to the court last week, stating, “In my desperation, I thought of death,” according to state media. The scandal has shocked the Southeast Asian country, with around 42,000 victims identified by the police. Among these victims is Nga, a 67-year-old Hanoi resident, who expressed her disappointment over Lan’s sentence, hoping for a life sentence so that Lan could fully witness the pain her actions caused ordinary people.

Nga has been unable to retrieve the $120,000 she invested with SCB. Lan was accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90 percent stake. During the trial, prosecutors revealed that they had seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan. They also stated that $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 former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team, Do Thi Nhan, was sentenced to life in prison for receiving bribes. More than 4,400 people have been indicted during Vietnam’s corruption crackdown, across more than 1,700 graft cases, since 2021. The story also covers the sentencing of Do Anh Dung, head of the Tan Hoang Minh group, in a bond scam case, showing the widespread impact of the corruption crackdown in Vietnam.