Vietnamese tycoon faces scramble to raise billions to avoid death sentence | Vietnam

The Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan has lost her appeal against the death penalty for masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal – though she could still save her life if she can repay most of the funds she embezzled.

Lan, who founded the real-estate developer Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to death in April for embezzling $12bn (£9.95bn) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in a case that shocked the country.

Lan had appealed against the sentence, asking the court to consider a more “lenient and humane approach”. However, on Tuesday judges upheld the death penalty, saying her crimes had caused grave consequences, and that there were no mitigating circumstances, according to local media.

Under Vietnamese law, Lan could still save her life if she returns three-quarters of the embezzled assets, which means she faces a desperate scramble to gather billions of dollars. If she does so, her sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment.

Lan is a prominent tycoon in Vietnam, and she and Van Thinh Phat own a shopping mall, a harbour as well as luxury housing complexes in Ho Chi Minh City.

Although Lan did not directly hold executive power at SCB, she owned 91.5% of the bank’s shares through friends, family and shell companies, it was heard at her trial earlier this year.

The court heard she had set up fake loan applications to withdraw money from the bank over a period of 11 years, from 2012 to 2022. The loans accounted for 93% of the total credit the bank has issued, according to state media. Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings lost money.

According to a report by Reuters, documents suggest Vietnam’s central bank has injected $24bn of “special loans” into SCB to try to rescue the bank.

While Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5bn, prosecutors said the total damages were in fact $27bn, equivalent to about 6% of the country’s GDP last year.

She was tried alongside 85 others, including former central bankers and government officials, as well as previous SCB executives.

Lan said last week she felt “pained due to the waste of national resources” and “very embarrassed to be charged with this crime”.

The case is part of a wider, national corruption crackdown known as “Blazing Furnace” led by the former secretary general of the Communist party of Vietnam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, which has led to the indictments of thousands of people.

In a separate case, Lan was convicted of money laundering and jailed for life in October.