Vietnamese real estate tycoon sentenced to death for $27 billion fraud begins appeal

Real estate developer Truong My Lan, 68, was convicted earlier this year of cash fraud at the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) – which prosecutors say she controlled – and sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.

Tens of thousands of people who had put their savings in the bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from victims.

Lan, wearing a blue shirt, was brought to court on Monday amid tight security in Ho Chi Minh City.

The court will consider Lan's request for a sentence reduction along with those of 47 other defendants during a three-week appeal involving 100 lawyers, state media said.

Lan has also asked to be released from a $26.5 million court fee.

At the start of the hearing, around a dozen people staged a small protest in front of an SCB branch in Hanoi, demanding compensation for the victims.

In her handwritten appeal of more than five pages, seen by AFP, Lan said the death sentence was “too severe and harsh.”

She urged the court to consider a “more lenient and humane approach.”

“Because of my passion for business and desire to build and contribute to Vietnam by creating world-class projects, I traded and sacrificed a lot of happiness for myself and my family,” the appeal said.

Lan said she suffered from the pressure of negative public opinion.

“Every night I still feel tormented and wonder why my family and I are in this situation,” Lan said.

The appeal comes after Lan was sentenced to life in prison last month in a separate money laundering case.

Fake loan applications

During her first trial in April, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damage caused by the fraud was $27 billion – equivalent to about six percent of the country's GDP Landes in 2023.

The court ordered Lan to pay almost all of the damages.

One of the victims, 84-year-old Le Hang, told AFP she did not want Lan to die despite losing more than half a million dollars to the scam.

“She has to live to make amends for what she did and get back at people like me,” said Hang, who regularly took part in protests outside the Ho Chi Minh City courthouse.

“I hope she survives.”

In addition, 85 other people were convicted of everything from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.

They were arrested as part of a nationwide corruption crackdown dubbed a “burning furnace” that has swept up scores of officials and members of Vietnam's business elite.

Between 2012 and 2022, Lan used nearly 1,300 fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned 90 percent of the shares, the court found.

Her driver transported the equivalent of more than $4.4 billion in cash from SCB's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City to her nearby home and the headquarters of her real estate development group Van Thinh Phat, state media reported, citing police investigations.