Vietnamese real estate billionaire Truong My Lan was sentenced to death in Vietnam’s largest economic crime trial. Lan, 67, was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and was convicted with 86 other defendants in the trial.
The sentences for the other defendants ranged from three years’ suspended imprisonment to life imprisonment, with four receiving life sentences. The trial lasted for five weeks and included former central bankers, government officials, and SCB directors accused of bribery, abuse of power, embezzlement, and violation of the Banking Act.
One of the accused, the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team, By Thi Nhan, was accused of taking a bribe worth $5.2 million. Lan’s crime caused total losses from the fraud to reach $27 billion, equivalent to six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP. The court ordered Lan to pay back almost the entire amount.
Lan’s spouse, Hong Kong businessman Eric Chu Nap-kee, was sentenced to nine years in prison. The trial was exceptionally open and public, with 2,700 witnesses heard, ten prosecutors
