Truong My Lan: Vietnamese tycoon in race to raise $9bn to avoid execution

Truong My Lan, a home magnate in Vietnam, is attempting to save her life.

The 68-year-old may learn the outcome of her appeal against the death sentence she received in April for conspiring to commit the largest bank fraud in the world on Tuesday.

She is one of the few women in Vietnam to receive a death sentence for a white collar crime, which is unusual and stunning.

The court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of$ 44 billion ( £34.5 billion ).

Of that prosecutors say$ 27 billion was misappropriated, and$ 12 billion was judged to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was sentenced to death.

However, the rules in Vietnam claims that if she can give up 75 % of what she took, her word will get commuted to life imprisonment.

During her trial in April Truong My Lan, who had been chairwoman of the real estate firm, Van Thinh Phat Group, was sometimes defiant. But in the recent hearings for her appeal against the sentence she been more contrite.

She claimed that her only idea was to pay back what she had taken because she was embarrassed to have been like a drain on the condition.

Truong My Lan, a member of the Sino-Vietnamese home, started out as a business barn seller offering makeup to her mother in Ho Chi Minh City. After the Communist Party started implementing financial reform in 1986, she began purchasing land and property. By the 1990s, she owned a huge collection of hotels and restaurants.

She served as the president of Van Thinh Lil Group, a well-known real estate company, when she was found guilty and sentenced in April. It was a serious moment in the” Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by then-Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.

All of the remaining 85 accused were convicted. Four were given jail sentences of up to three years in prison, while the others received jail sentences of up to 20. Truong My Lan’s father and daughter received prison terms of nine and 17 times respectively.

In order to stop a larger banks meltdown, the State Bank of Vietnam is alleged to have spent several billions on the recapitalization of Saigon Commercial Bank. The prosecution argued that her acts were “huge and without law” and did not justify mercy.

Truong My Lan’s attorneys claim that she is frantically trying to find the$ 9 billion needed. But taking in her property is proving challenging.

Some are pleasure qualities in the Taiwanese capital, Ho Chi Minh City, which could, in principle, be sold really fast. Other assets include shares or bets in other companies or real estate projects.

More than a thousand various resources linked to the scams have been identified across the state. These have currently been temporarily frozen by the government. According to the BBC, the billionaire has also contacted friends to offer them loans to help her meet the goal.

On economic grounds, her attorneys are asking for mercy from the judges. They claim that while she is incarcerated, it will be difficult for her to negotiate the best price for selling her assets and investments, and that it will be even harder for her to increase$ 9 billion.

She can do much better if under a living word rather, they say.

Lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC,” Her assets actually exceed the required payment number.”

” Nevertheless, these require time and effort to buy, as many of the property are real house and take time to sell. Truong My Lan wishes the jury could make the most favorable conditions for her to remain receiving compensation.

Some expect the magistrates to be moved by these claims. If, as expected, they reject her charm, Truong My Lan will in effect become in a contest with the murderer to raise the funds she needs.

Vietnam’s dying sentence is regarded as a state secret. Although human rights organizations claim there are more than 1, 000 people on death row and that Vietnam is one of the largest assassins in the world, the government does not disclose how many of those are.

Although captives are given very little notice, the sentences are commonly lengthy, usually many years, before they are executed. Her life will most likely be spared if Truong My Lan can recover the$ 9 billion before that occurs.