Ho Chi Minh City — In a landmark corruption case, a prominent Vietnamese real estate mogul has been sentenced to death for his involvement in a scandal that resulted in an estimated $27 billion in damages. Truong My Lan, the chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of siphoning funds from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a span of ten years, as determined by a panel of three selected jurors and two judges who dismissed all of Lan's defense arguments.
The verdict, delivered in the southern business center of Ho Chi Minh City, stated, "The defendant's actions... eroded people's trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state."
Despite Lan's denial of the charges and attempts to shift blame onto her subordinates, the court ruled against her.
Following a lengthy five-week trial, an additional 85 individuals are awaiting their own verdicts and sentencing for a variety of offenses including bribery, abuse of power, misappropriation, and violations of banking regulations.
Lan was found to have embezzled $12.5 billion, however, prosecutors revealed on Thursday that the overall damages caused by the scheme now stand at $27 billion — an amount equivalent to six percent of the country's 2023 GDP. This staggering sum surpasses the recent conviction of FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried for defrauding customers of approximately $10 billion.
Still, the death sentence is an unusually severe punishment in such a case.
Lan and the others were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam's business elite in recent years.
The Vietnamese property mogul appeared to say in final remarks to the court last week that she had thoughts of suicide.
"In my desperation, I thought of death," she said, according to state media. "I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment — the banking sector — which I have little knowledge of."
Hundreds of people began to stage protests in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, a relatively rare occurrence in the one-party communist state, after Lan's arrest in October 2022.
Police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the Southeast Asian country.
Lan, who is married to a wealthy Hong Kong businessman also on trial, was accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90% stake.
Police say the scam's victims are all SCB bondholders who cannot withdraw their money and have not received interest or principal payments since Lan's arrest.
Prosecutors presented evidence in court that they had confiscated over 1,000 properties owned by Lan.
It was also revealed by authorities that a sum of $5.2 million, allegedly handed over by Lan and certain SCB bankers to government officials in order to cover up the bank's wrongdoings and financial troubles, marked the largest bribe ever documented in Vietnam.
The intended recipient of the bribe, Do Thi Nhan, the former leader of the State Bank of Vietnam's inspection team, testified in court that the money was delivered to her in Styrofoam containers by the former SCB CEO, Vo Tan Van.
Vietnam's anti-corruption campaign has resulted in the indictment of over 4,400 individuals in more than 1,700 corruption cases since 2021.
A prominent Vietnamese real estate magnate, Do Anh Dung, who heads the Tan Hoang Minh group, was recently sentenced to eight years in prison for defrauding thousands of investors in a $355 million bond scheme.
