Vietnam has convicted one of its real estate tycoons, Truong My Lan, for corruption and sentenced her to death. It is rare in Vietnam for white collar criminals to be sentenced to death, and this is the first women to fall in this category.
Vietnam is still a Communist country, and has a ruthless justice system. The regime found Truong guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, which account for 3% of its GDP. For America, this would amount to $840 billion. The Associated Press says:
Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was sentenced to death Thursday by a court in Ho Chi Minh city for orchestrating the country’s largest ever financial fraud case, was one of Vietnam’s most important businesspeople for years. She has been convicted for fraud amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP — and for illegally controlling a major bank and allowing loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion, state media outlets reported.
Vietnam typically gives death penalties crimes like terrorism or murder and, according to Amnesty International, has among the highest rates of capital punishment worldwide. But a death sentence for a financial crime is rare in the country.
The death penalty is seen as necessary to properly punish her for this gross corruption that will likely not be reimbursed. Prosecutors have also declared their use of the death penalty as a way to incentivize her to return as much money as possible. As part of future negotiations, she might be able to bring her sentence down to life without parole if she returns enough of the stollen cash. The BBC says:
The decision is a reflection of the dizzying scale of the fraud. Truong My Lan was convicted of taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. The verdict requires her to return $27bn, a sum prosecutors said may never be recovered. Some believe the death penalty is the court’s way of trying to encourage her to return some of the missing billions.
The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved.
Corruption was traditionally a capital crime in most of the world, including in Ancient Greece. White collar crimes do not shock the conscience as much as violent crime but they can cause far more damage.
READ NEXT: Here’s How To Claim Walmart Settlement Money
