:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/LZ5BCQNFM5E3DDZZ5EFXE3MTFY.png "Truong My Lan | Vietnam Prosecutor’s Office requests death penalty against businesswoman for $12.5 billion fraud | Van Thinh Phat | Saigon Commercial Bank | latest | | WORLD")
Vietnam’s prosecutors have requested the death penalty against a businesswoman accused of embezzling $12.5 billion, in the largest fraud case in the country’s history, a state newspaper reported Tuesday.
“According to the prosecutor’s office, Truong My Lan played the role of mastermind, but did not admit her crime, was stubborn, criticized her subordinates and did not express any regrets,” the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, adding that the other defendants confessed to their actions.
Prosecutors asked the popular jury to apply the death penalty for embezzlement of funds, as well as prison sentences of up to 20 years in total, for corruption and failure to respect banking regulations.
Truong, president of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat, is accused of defrauding more than 40,000 people, between 2012 and 2022, through a loan scheme from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), more than 90% owned by her group.
The businesswoman was arrested in October 2022. The aforementioned amount, about $12.5 billion, is equivalent to 3% of Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product in 2022.
The trial of Truong and several of his accomplices began on March 5 in Ho Chi Minh, in the south of the country.
The magnitude of the scandal led hundreds of people to demonstrate in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, in one of the few protests tolerated in the communist country.
The use of the death penalty is common in Vietnam in narcotics cases, but is rare in financial offences. Statistics on its application are a state secret but, according to Amnesty International, “numerous” executions are carried out each year.