The 68-year-old is now racing against time, as Vietnam’s law allows her to avoid execution if she repays 75% of the $44 billion she fraudulently obtained, reducing her sentence to life imprisonment. In April, a court determined that Truong My Lan secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth-largest lender, using a network of shell companies to siphon loans and funds over more than 10 years. Prosecutors say $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion was embezzled, for which she received the death sentence.
Her conviction is rare, as she is one of the few women in Vietnam sentenced to death for a financial crime. On December 3, the court ruled there were no grounds to reduce her sentence but gave her the chance to avoid execution if she returns $9 billion of the $12 billion embezzled.
During her trial, Truong My Lan was defiant, but in her appeal hearings, she appeared more remorseful. She expressed regret for burdening the state and emphasized her determination to repay what she took.
Starting as a market vendor selling cosmetics with her mother, Truong My Lan expanded into land and property after Vietnam’s economic reforms in 1986. By the 1990s, she had built a significant portfolio of hotels and restaurants. At the time of her conviction, she was chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group, a major real estate company. Her sentencing marked a high point in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by Communist Party Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong.
Of the 85 other defendants, four received life sentences, and the rest, including Truong My Lan’s husband and niece, were sentenced to terms ranging from three to 20 years.
Truong My Lan’s lawyers say she is working hard to raise the $9 billion needed to avoid execution, but liquidating her assets has proven challenging. Some are high-end properties in Ho Chi Minh City that could be sold quickly, while others are shares or stakes in other businesses and property projects. Authorities have frozen more than a thousand assets linked to the fraud.
Her legal team has appealed for leniency, arguing that the death sentence hinders her ability to sell assets quickly and obtain the necessary funds. They claim she could secure better deals if given a life sentence instead. Lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep explained that while the value of her holdings exceeds the compensation required, selling the assets, mostly real estate, will take time. Truong My Lan hopes the court will allow her the best chance to repay the debt.
