Vietnam death row tycoon’s appeal begins

FILE PHOTO: In Vietnam, property tycoon Truong My Lan (C) looks on at a court during her fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City on April 11, 2024. – A Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totaling $27 billion faces a potential life sentence on October 17 in a related trial on money laundering charges. (Photo by Agence France-Presse)

HANOI, Vietnam — The appeal of a Vietnamese property tycoon given the death penalty for fraud totaling $27 billion will begin on Monday after she pleaded for a more “lenient and humane” sentence.

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

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

The court in Ho Chi Minh City will review Lan’s request for a reduced sentence, along with that of 47 other defendants, during a three-week appeal attended by 100 lawyers, state media said.

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

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

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

READ: Vietnam death row tycoon faces money laundering trial

Lan said she had suffered due to 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 convicted of money laundering and jailed for life in a separate case last month.

Vietnam tycoon’s fake loan applications

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 six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP.

The court ordered Lan to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.

One of the victims, Le Hang, 84, told Agence France-Presse that she did not want Lan to die even though she lost more than half a million dollars through the fraud.

READ: Trial starts for Vietnam tycoon in $146 million graft case

“She must live to fix what she has done and repay people like me,” said Hang, who has regularly attended protests in front of the Ho Chi Minh City court.

“I hope she survives.”

Eighty-five others were also sentenced on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.

They were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous 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 a 90 percent stake, 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 head offices of her real estate development group Van Thinh Phat, state media reported, citing the police investigation.