Vietnam Death Row Tycoon Begs Court for Her Life

HO CHI MINH CITY – Truong My Lan, a 68-year-old Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for orchestrating one of the largest fraud cases in history, pleaded with a court on Sunday to spare her life, vowing to repay the stolen billions.

Lan, convicted earlier this year for embezzling approximately US$27 billion (S$36.4 billion) from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), is appealing her sentence at a court in Ho Chi Minh City, with a decision expected in the coming days.

In her emotional final remarks, Lan expressed remorse and a commitment to redress her wrongdoings. “My only thought is on how to repay the debt to the SBV (State Bank of Vietnam) and the people,” she told the court. “I feel pained due to the waste of national resources… Please reconsider and reduce my sentence.”

Under Vietnamese law, Lan could avoid execution if she returns three-quarters of the stolen assets and demonstrates significant cooperation with authorities. Prosecutors, however, argued that she had failed to meet these conditions, describing the scale of her crimes as “huge and without precedent.”

Lan proposed liquidating SCB and selling assets to expedite repayment. Her case has stirred public outrage, as tens of thousands of SCB investors lost their savings, leading to rare protests outside the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi.

The State Bank revealed in April that it injected funds to stabilize SCB but withheld details of the amount. Lan, the founder of the Van Thinh Phat real estate group, was previously convicted of money laundering in October and sentenced to life imprisonment in another case.

This appeal also involves 47 co-defendants seeking reduced sentences, reflecting the staggering fallout of the scandal, which prosecutors say inflicted damages equivalent to 6% of Vietnam’s 2023 GDP.