CBS
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was sentenced to death on Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated $27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, the chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) for a decade.
“The defendant’s actions… eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City.
Lan denied the charges and blamed her subordinates.
After a five-week trial, 85 others also face verdicts and sentencing on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion — a figure equivalent to six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP. The figure dwarfs even the amount that FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried was recently convicted of swindling his customers out of, estimated at around $10 billion.
Still, the death sentence is an unusually severe punishment in such a case.
