A Vietnamese court has upheld the death sentence of real estate magnate Truong Mai Lan for the huge damage caused to the country's economy, reports say Associated Press and France Press, quoted by BTA.
Lan's sentence was originally announced in April, and it said the damage in the form of fraud, bribery and embezzlement amounted to about $12.5 billion, or nearly 3 percent of Vietnam's GDP.
In his capacity as president of the real estate company "Van Tin Fat" (Van Thinh Phat) Lan illegally controlled "Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank" (Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank) between 2012 and 2022 and authorized the issuance of 2,500 loans that cost the bank $27 billion in losses.
A court in Ho Chi Minh rejected the appeal, but ruled that her death sentence could be commuted to life if she reimbursed three-quarters of the damages. According to the institution, the scale of the fraud has "shocked the nation".