Tycoon facing death penalty has her jail term cut to 30 years in $17 billion Vietnam money laundering case

A Vietnamese property tycoon who was jailed for life in a $17 billion money laundering case had her sentence cut to 30 years on appeal on Monday after she claimed what happened was “an accident.”

Property developer Truong My Lan had already lost a challenge against the death penalty in a separate case in which she was found guilty in April last year of stealing money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and fraud amounting to $27 billion.

The appeal court ruled there was no basis to reduce her sentence but said she could still escape the death penalty if she returned three-quarters of the stolen assets. That means she could still avoid execution if she returns $9 billion, or three-quarters of the $12 billion she embezzled, the BBC reported.

Four months later, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled on Monday that a life sentence she was handed for three crimes during a second trial in October would be reduced to 30 years.

“Lan played the major role… (but) we also take into consideration the amount of money that Lan has spent on overcoming the consequences,” judge Pham Cong Muoi said following discussions during the appeal about how her assets may be used to compensate victims of her crimes.

Prosecutors said she had repaid a quarter of the $1.2 billion she defrauded from thousands of bond investors.

“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC before her appeal was rejected. “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 favorable conditions for her to continue making compensation.”

Lan’s husband Chu Lap Co did not appeal, but the judging panel concluded that his two-year sentence should be cut by half after he paid back the $1.2 million he was found to have laundered.

In her final words before the court last week, Lan described what happened as “an accident.”

“Since being jailed, I have tried my best… to seek the best solutions to (deal with my) projects and properties,” she was quoted as saying by state media.

“Please acknowledge my effort,” she added.

Court determined Lan was “the mastermind”

The 68-year-old was found guilty in October of laundering $17.7 billion and illegal cross-border trafficking of $4.5 billion.

She was also found guilty of bond fraud.

The court determined during the trial that Lan was “the mastermind, committed the crime with sophisticated methods, many times, causing especially serious consequences.”

During her first trial in April 2024, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion but prosecutors said the damages caused by the scam totaled $27 billion — equivalent to around 6% of Vietnam’s 2023 GDP.

Lan owned just 5% of shares in SCB on paper but the court concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90% through family, friends and staff.

Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, prompting rare protests in the communist nation.

During her trial, Lan was sometimes defiant, but in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she was more contrite, the BBC reported. She said she was ashamed to have been such a drain on the state, and that her only thought was to pay back what she had taken.

“I feel pained due to the waste of national resources,” Lan said in November, adding she felt “very embarrassed to be charged with this crime.”