A court in Vietnam sentenced real estate magnate Truong My Lan, president of the Van Thinh Phat Group, to death this Thursday for a case of embezzlement amounting to 12 billion dollars, at the end of a high-profile trial that is part of of the ruling Communist Party's efforts to contain corruption in the Asian country.
Lan, 68, was arrested in 2022, after authorities considered her responsible for a series of corruptions that included the diversion of funds from Saigon Commercial Bank, which suffered a massive flight of deposits after the scandal broke. The embezzlement continued for a decade, as was confirmed in the trial held in Ho Chi Minh City.
The damage caused to the entity amounted to 27 billion dollars, from some 2,500 false loans managed by the plot headed by Lan. The board of directors dedicated their last speaking turn last week to apologizing for their mistakes and, visibly emotional, claiming that they had entered the banking sector without experience and found themselves dragged into a system that they did not know, according to the 'VnExpress' portal.
Precedent in 2013
The court has found her guilty of a total of three charges: only the embezzlement charge is the one that has cost her the death sentence, while she has received sentences of 20 years in prison for failing to comply with banking regulations and offering bribes.
Corruption crimes are part of the battery of crimes that can be punished with the death penalty in Vietnam and, in fact, two other former directors of Vietnam National Shipping Lines, the company responsible for port and navigation management, were also sentenced to this punishment in 2013, reports the Bloomberg agency.
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