Billionaire Sentenced To Death Over Multi-Billion Dollar Fraud in Vietnam

A top Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to death on Thursday in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.

A panel of three jurors and two judges found Truong My Lan, head of major developer Van Thinh Phat guilty of swindling cash worth $27 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade.

Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion.

She and the others were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown.

Lan is married to a wealthy Hong Kong businessman also on trial. She was accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90 percent stake.

Prosecutors said during the trial they had seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan.

Authorities have also said $5.2 million allegedly given by Lan and some SCB bankers to state officials to conceal the bank’s violations and poor financial situation was the largest-ever bribe recorded in Vietnam.