The 68-year-old businesswoman, Truong My Lanaccused of appropriating some €27 billion through bank deposits from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB)the largest fraud case in Vietnam, was sentenced to the death penalty this April of this year, in the midst of an anti-corruption campaign in the communist country.
These days, the accused businesswoman and tycoon is appealing his sentence before a court in Ho Chi Minh City and the ruling is expected to be announced in the coming days, according to information from the AFP agency.
In his final statements to the court, Lan said: “My only thought is how to pay the debt to the SBV (State Bank of Vietnam) and the people. I don’t think about the damage they will cause to me and my family. “I feel hurt by the waste of national resources.” She added that she felt “very ashamed to be accused of this crime.” “Please reconsider and reduce my sentence,” she asked the court.
According to Vietnamese law collected by the agency, Lan could escape the death penalty if proactively returns “three-quarters of misappropriated assets and is considered to have sufficiently cooperated with the authorities.”
However, prosecutors argued earlier this week that she had not met the conditions and emphasized that the consequences of his crime were “enormous and unprecedented.” Among the key points being debated in court is an estimate of Lan’s personal wealth.
The solution to return stolen funds
Lan, who founded the real estate development group Van Thinh Phat, told the court that “the quickest way” to return the stolen funds would be “liquidate SCB and sell our assets to pay SBV and the people.”
dozens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the SCB lost moneyshocking the communist nation and provoking rare protests from the victims, who demonstrated again on Tuesday in front of the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi, according to the agency and reported by Fortune.
The State Bank said in April that injected funds into the SCB to stabilize it, without revealing how much. During her first trial in April, Lan was found guilty of embezzling €12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to €27 billion, equivalent to around 6% of the country’s GDP in 2023. .
Along these lines, a total of 47 more defendants have requested reductions in sentences in the appealn, which began in early November. In October, Lan was convicted of “money laundering and imprisoned for life in a separate case.”
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