XPost: alt.government.employees, sac.politics, soc.culture.vietnamese   
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   From: getit@done.com   
      
   HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My   
   Lan was upheld Tuesday in Vietnam’s largest fraud case, the scale of which   
   had raised concerns about the country’s economy.   
      
   She had been convicted in April of embezzlement and bribery over the fraud   
   amounting to $12.5 billion, nearly 3% of Vietnam’s 2022 GDP. As   
   chairperson of the Van Thinh Phat real estate firm, Lan illegally   
   controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and   
   allowed 2,500 loans that cost the bank $27 billion in losses.   
      
   The court in Ho Chi Minh rejected her appeal against the conviction while   
   adding that her death sentence could be commuted to life if she reimburses   
   three-fourth of the losses, working out to around $11 billion, state media   
   reported.   
      
   Her lawyers argued that she had repaid the money but the court disagreed   
   since there were legal issues with some of the seized properties and   
   prosecuting agencies couldn’t assess their value, VN Express reported.   
      
   Lan’s lawyers also noted several mitigating circumstances — she had   
   admitted guilt, showed remorse and had paid back part of the amount.   
      
   “I feel pained due to the waste of national resources,” she said last   
   week, state media reported.   
      
   But the court said her violations had negatively impacted banking, caused   
   public disorder and eroded people’s trust, VN Express said.   
      
   Under Vietnamese law, death sentences aren’t immediately carried out and   
   there is an extended legal process, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting   
   fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak   
   Institute. He added that Lan would seek another review of the case or a   
   presidential pardon to reduce her sentence.   
      
      
   “Moreover, if she repays at least three-quarters of the misappropriated   
   funds, the court may consider commuting her sentence to life   
   imprisonment,” he said.   
      
   Her arrest was among the most high-profile in an anti-corruption drive in   
   Vietnam that intensified after 2022. The Blazing Furnace campaign touched   
   the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics. But the scale of her fraud   
   shocked the nation with analysts raising questions about whether other   
   banks or businesses had similarly erred.   
      
   This dampened Vietnam’s economic outlook and made foreign investors   
   jittery at a time when Vietnam has been trying to position itself as a   
   home for businesses pivoting their supply chains away from China.   
      
   Lan, 67, and her family had set up the Van Thing Phat company in 1992   
   after Vietnam shed its state-run economy in favor of a more market-   
   oriented approach open to foreigners. The company grew into one of   
   Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with luxury residential buildings,   
   offices, hotels and shopping centers.   
      
   This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry. She   
   orchestrated the 2011 merger of the beleaguered SCB bank with two other   
   lenders in coordination with Vietnam’s central bank. The court said that   
   she used this to tap SCB for cash and, according to government documents,   
   owned more than 90% of the bank while approving thousands of loans to   
   “ghost companies.”   
      
   These loans, according to state media, found their way to her and she   
   bribed officials to cover her tracks.   
      
   The scale of the crime meant the case was split into two trials, and Lan   
   was sentenced to another life sentence in October. At that trial, she was   
   accused of raising $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by issuing   
   bonds illegally through four companies, state media reported.   
      
   She was also found guilty of siphoning off $18 billion obtained through   
   fraud and for using companies controlled by her to illegally transfer more   
   than $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022.   
      
   Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in the past decade   
   and executed more than 400 prisoners. It is a possible sentence for 14   
   different crimes but is typically applied for cases of murder and drug   
   trafficking.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/vietnam-truong-my-lan-death-sentence-   
   a51f557f092de27163b7c2baf1f803b4   
      
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