Vietnamese tycoon in race to raise $9bn to avoid execution
Vietnamese property magnate Truong My Lan is facing a life-or-death situation.
On Tuesday, the 68-year-old will learn the outcome of her appeal against the death sentence handed down in April for orchestrating the world’s largest bank fraud.
This verdict was both rare and startling, as Truong My Lan is one of the few women in Vietnam to receive a death sentence for a white-collar crime.
The court determined that she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth-largest lender, taking out loans and siphoning money over a period of more than 10 years through a network of shell companies, totaling $44 billion (£34.5 billion).
Of that amount, prosecutors claim $27 billion was misappropriated, while $12 billion was deemed embezzled—an offense severe enough to warrant the death penalty.
However, under Vietnamese law, if she repays 75% of the funds she took, her sentence can be reduced to life imprisonment.
During her trial in April, Truong My Lan, who had served as the chairwoman of the real estate conglomerate Van Thinh Phat Group, was at times defiant. In contrast, during her recent appeal hearings, she has appeared more remorseful.
She expressed her shame for being such a burden on the state, adding that her primary concern now is to repay what she had taken.
Truong My Lan was born into a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City. She began as a market vendor selling cosmetics with her mother. After the Communist Party initiated economic reforms in 1986, she began acquiring land and property. By the 1990s, she had built a sizable portfolio of hotels and restaurants.
When she was convicted and sentenced in April, she was the chairwoman of a prominent real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group. It was a dramatic moment in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.
All of the remaining 85 defendants were convicted. Four were sentenced to life in jail, while the rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended. Truong My Lan’s husband and niece received jail terms of nine and 17 years respectively.
The State Bank of Vietnam is believed to have spent many billions of dollars recapitalising Saigon Commercial Bank to prevent a wider banking panic. The prosecutors argued that her crimes were “huge and without precedent” and did not justify leniency.
Truong My Lan’s lawyers say she is working as fast as she can to find the $9 billion needed. But cashing in her assets is proving difficult.
Some are luxury properties in the Vietnamese capital, Ho Chi Minh City, which could, in theory, be sold quite quickly. Others are in the form of shares or stakes in other businesses or property projects.
In all the state has identified more than a thousand different assets linked to the fraud. These have been frozen by the authorities for now. The BBC understands the tycoon has also reached out to friends to raise loans for her to help reach the target.
Her lawyers are arguing for leniency from the judges on financial grounds. They say that while she is under sentence of death it will be hard for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and so harder for her to raise $9 billion.
She can do much better if under a life sentence instead, they say.
“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC.
“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate. Truong My Lan hopes the court can create the most favourable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”
Few expect the judges to be moved by these arguments. If, as expected, they reject her appeal, Truong My Lan will in effect be in a race with the executioner to raise the funds she needs.
Vietnam treats the death penalty as a state secret. The government does not publish how many people are on death row, though human rights groups say there are more than 1,000 and that Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest executioners.
Typically there are long delays, often many years before sentences are carried out, although prisoners are given very little notice. If Truong My Lan can recover the $9 billion before that happens, her life will most likely be spared.
