Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan sentenced to death in multibillion-dollar fraud case

Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan has been sentenced to death over her role in a multibillion-dollar fraud case.

Lan, 67, chair of real estate company Van Thinh Phat (VTP), was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules at the end of a trial in Ho Chi Minh City.

The billionaire was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5bn (£10bn) – nearly 3 per cent of Vietnam’s 2022 GDP, according to news agencies.

The BBC reported that she was convicted for taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), with prosecutors claiming $27bn may never be recovered.

The high-profile trial, which began on 5 March and ended earlier than planned, has rocked Vietnam. VTP was one of the nation’s biggest developers, with luxury homes, offices, hotels and shopping centres on its books.

Vietnamese stocks suffered a $40bn wipeout in 2022 after a string of major corporate arrests rattled investor confidence at a sensitive moment for the burgeoning economy.

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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 while paying bribes to government officials, investigators said.

The property developer was arrested in October 2022 as part of an ongoing anti-corruption drive in Vietnam dubbed “blazing furnace”.

Lan will appeal the verdict, a family member told Reuters.

The size of the scam led to questions over other businesses in the country, damaging Vietnam’s economic outlook and worrying foreign investors at a time when the nation has been trying to sell itself as a home for businesses pivoting supply chains away from China, analysts told the Associated Press.

Hundreds of well-known business figures have now been forced to resign or prosecuted as part of the “blazing furnace” campaign. Vo Van Thuong, the former president, resigned last month after being implicated in the investigation.

Nguyen Phu Trong, leader of the ruling Communist Party, has vowed for years to end corruption in Vietnam, although with few tangible results.

Additional reporting from agencies