A Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27 billion will face a verdict on October 17 in a related case where she has been accused of money laundering, her lawyer said Friday.
Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty in April of swindling cash from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, and sentenced to death.
Prosecutors are now pushing for a life sentence for Lan who — along with 33 defendants — has been charged with money laundering, illegal cross-border trafficking of cash and fraud, state newspaper Tuoi Tre said.
Her lawyer Phan Trung Hoai told AFP the court in Ho Chi Minh City would deliver its verdict on October 17, following a month-long trial.
Lan, who is appealing her death sentence, argued in court that a life sentence would be too harsh, according to Tuoi Tre.
“The defendant has three big dreams in life: building an international general hospital, building social housing and building free schools,” Lan reportedly said, referring to herself in the third person.
“The defendant spent decades attempting to carry out the plan but failed at the last minute,” she said, adding that she was “not a bad person”.
“The defendant is just a lowly citizen, I beg the jury to consider giving the defendant leniency under the law.”
Lan also apologised to the victims, Tuoi Tre added.
Around 36,000 people have been identified as victims of the SCB fraud, which shocked the communist nation and prompted rare protests from those who lost their money.
State media reported earlier that Lan and her associates stole around $18 billion by taking assets from SCB and issuing bonds between early 2018 and October 2022.
Prosecutors said the total damages caused amounted to $27 billion — a figure equivalent to about six percent of Vietnam’s gross domestic product in 2023.
Lan was given the death penalty in April after being found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion. She is appealing the verdict but no date for the appeal has been announced.
