Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan has been sentenced to life in prison for property fraud while on death row

A real estate tycoon on death row in Vietnam has been sentenced to life in prison for fraudulently acquiring properties worth billions of dollars.

Truong My Lan, the chairman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was found guilty of obtaining property through fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers, state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre said.

Lan’s companies were accused of illegally raising more than 30 trillion dong ($1.78 billion) from issuing bonds to investors, according to a police statement released ahead of the trial.

Lan was also accused of illegally transferring US$6.79 billion to and from Vietnam and laundering US$445 trillion (US$2.64 billion), the statement said.

The judges said Lan acknowledged many of her wrongdoings but refuted allegations that she directed the bond issuance, Tuoi Tre reported.

Reuters could not immediately reach her lawyers for comment.

Nguyen Hieu, a teacher whose lifetime savings of $53,000 was tied up in illegal bonds issued by Lan’s company, said the life sentence was fair.

“She deserves the punishment,” he said, adding that he hoped the death sentence from the first trial was commuted so Lan could repay her victims.

It was not immediately clear whether Lan would appeal the verdict and no date has yet been set for when her appeal against her death penalty conviction will be heard.

All other 33 co-defendants were found guilty of various charges and received sentences ranging from two to 23 years in prison.

Among them was Chu Nap Kee, Lan’s husband, who was sentenced to two years for money laundering.

In April, Lan was sentenced to death in a separate trial after being found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking regulations in a VND304 trillion financial fraud, the country’s largest ever.

The fraud amounted to almost 3 percent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product.

Her arrest in 2022 sparked a run on one of the country’s largest private banks by depositors, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which was at the center of the fraud and majority owned by Lan through her proxies.

Lan is among high-profile businessmen and state officials caught in the communist-ruled country’s yearslong anti-graft campaign known as “Blazing Furnace.”

Since 2016, thousands of party officials have been disciplined, including former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc and former parliament head Vuong Dinh Hue, both of whom have resigned.

A total of eight members of the powerful Politburo have been ousted over corruption charges, compared to none between 1986 and 2016.

Reuters/AP/ABC