Vietnam death row tycoon faces verdict in new trial

Around 36, 000 SCB customers have been identified as subjects of the scams.

Online noodle vendor Nguyen Thi Huong told AFP she wanted to die after losing US$ 20, 000, her whole benefits, in 2022.

I felt as though I was losing my mind when I learned that I had lost everything I had deposited at SCB Bank, Huong, 33.

She suffered from sleep, her health declined as a result, and she no longer had the money to pay for her children’s further classes, which she claimed caused them to fall behind their peers.

” I sat by my father’s grave, and wished he would consider me with him in death”, Huong said.

According to a report from the state media earlier, Lan and her associates allegedly robbed SCB of about US$ 18 billion between beginning 2018 and October 2022. Lan essentially held a 90 % stake in the company.

According to state media, Lan, the head of Van Thinh Tubby, a major real estate developer, ordered her accomplices to withdraw money and get it out of SCB’s system.

She finally concealed the money’s sources and used it to settle business debts or to transfer the money abroad for fictitious deals.

As her most recent trial began, hundreds of patients in the case staged protests in northern Hanoi, requesting that regulators assist them in getting their money back.

Lan had apologised to the patients in court, according to state media, and said she was” never a bad people”.

She is appealing the conviction, but no date has been set for it. She was found guilty of embezzling US$$ 12.5 billion in April.

According to the prosecution, the full damage incurred totaled US$ 27 billion, which is roughly 6 % of Vietnam’s gross domestic product in 2023.