Vietnam court upholds death sentence for tycoon in $12B fraud case

A court in Vietnam on December 3 upheld a death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery in a high-profile $12 billion fraud case, state media reported, Report informs via Reuters.

Lan, the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was sentenced to death in April for her role in what was Vietnam's biggest financial fraud case on record.

The High People's Court in southern Ho Chi Minh City determined there was no basis to reduce Lan's death sentence, reported online newspaper VnExpress.

If Lan is able to return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row, it is possible the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment, the report said.

She is one of the most famous business executives and state officials jailed in the communist country's lengthy anti-graft campaign known as "Blazing Furnace."

"The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable," the prosecution was quoted as saying at the appeal hearing by state-run online newspaper VietnamNet.

"The defendant's actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, the economy," it said.

State media cited Lan's lawyer as saying she had many mitigating circumstances, including "having admitted guilt, showing remorse and paying back part of the amount of money embezzled", but prosecutors said that was insufficient.