Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan has lost her appeal against the death sentence for orchestrating the largest bank fraud in history.
The 68-year-old now faces a race to save her life, as Vietnamese law allows her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment if she repays 75% of the stolen funds.
In April, the court found Truong My Lan had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, Vietnam’s fifth-largest lender, for over a decade. Through a network of shell companies, she secured loans and withdrew funds totaling $44 billion (£34.5 billion). Prosecutors determined that $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion embezzled—the latter being the basis for her death sentence, as embezzlement is considered the most severe financial crime in Vietnam.
The verdict was both rare and shocking, marking her as one of the few women in Vietnam sentenced to death for a white-collar crime.
On Tuesday, the court upheld the sentence, stating there was no basis for leniency. However, she can avoid execution by repaying $9 billion—three-quarters of the embezzled amount. Additionally, she retains the option to petition the president for amnesty.
During her trial, Truong My Lan displayed moments of defiance, but in her recent appeal hearings, she adopted a more contrite tone. She expressed shame over the harm caused to the state and emphasized her determination to repay what she had taken.
Truong My Lan was born into a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City and began her career as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother. After the Communist Party introduced economic reforms in 1986, she started purchasing land and property. By the 1990s, she had built a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.
At the time of her conviction in April, she was the chairwoman of the prominent real estate firm Van Thinh Phat Group. Her sentencing marked a dramatic moment in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong.
All 85 co-defendants in the case were convicted. Four received life sentences, while the others were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece were each sentenced to nine and 17 years, respectively.
To prevent a wider banking crisis, the State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent billions of dollars recapitalizing Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors described Truong My Lan’s crimes as “huge and unprecedented,” arguing that they warranted no leniency.
Her lawyers have stated that Truong My Lan is working diligently to gather the $9 billion required to reduce her sentence. However, liquidating her assets has proven challenging. Some of her assets include luxury properties in Ho Chi Minh City, which could be sold quickly, while others are shares or stakes in various businesses and property projects.
In total, the authorities have identified over a thousand assets linked to the fraud, all of which have been frozen. According to the BBC, the tycoon has also reached out to friends to secure loans in an effort to meet the required amount.
