Court upholds death sentence for tycoon in $12bn fraud case

A court in Vietnam has upheld a death sentence for a real estate tycoon after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery, state media reported.

Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group (VTP), was sentenced to death in April for her role in a financial fraud worth more than $12bn, Vietnam’s biggest on record.

The 68-year-old was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules following a month-long trial.

Lan and her accomplices were charged with illegally controlling the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022 to siphon off funds through thousands of ghost companies and by paying bribes to government officials.

From early 2018 to October 2022, when the state bailed out SCB after a run on its deposits, Lan appropriated large sums by arranging unlawful loans to shell companies, investigators said.

Vietnamese news outlet VnExpress reported that if Lan can return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row, it is possible the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment.

According to the outlet, the prosecution said on Tuesday: “The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable.

“The defendant’s actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, the economy.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.