A Vietnam court has sentenced real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death for her role in a $12 billion fraud case.
This has been considered one of the most severe punishments since the Communist country began a crackdown on corruption.
Lan, 67, the chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group, was arrested in 2022 and eventually faced charges including bribery of government officials and violation of bank lending rules.
The main case against her was that she embezzled funds from Saigon Commercial Bank between February 2018 and October 2022. According to reports the sum exceeds the market capitalization of most Vietnamese banks. Her arrest, initially on bond fraud charges, had led to panic among depositors of SCB, triggering a run on the bank. The events resulted in the State Bank of Vietnam taking control of the lender.
In Vietnam, where death penalty is awarded for 22 offenses, including murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, sexual abuse of children, and a range of economic crimes, such as graft and corruption, fraud and embezzlement.
Vietnam Real estate tycoon sentenced to death for engagement in a $12 billion fraud case