Key Points
- A court in Vietnam has sentenced restate tycoon Truong My Lan to death after being found guilty of embezzlement.
- Lan was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules.
- State media has quoted prosecutors as saying Lan had not pleaded guilty.
“We will keep fighting to see what we can do,” a family member told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Truong My Lan is the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group. Source: AAP / EPA
Before Thursday’s verdict, he had said Lan would appeal against the sentence.
The Thanh Nien newspaper said 84 defendants in the case received sentences ranging from probation for three years to life imprisonment.
Truong My Lan is the chair of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat. Source: Getty / Nhac Nguyen/AFP
Lan and her accomplices were accused of siphoning off more than 304 trillion dong from Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which she effectively controlled through dozens of proxies, according to investigators.
After one series of big corporate arrests in 2022, Vietnamese stocks suffered a wipeout of $US40 billion ($61 billion), rattling investor confidence at a delicate moment for the fast-growing economy.
Tyler Mitchell