HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A court in Vietnam on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan but said it could be commuted to life if she reimburses some $11 billion, or three-fourths of what she defrauded in the country’s biggest financial crime.
The scale of her fraud shocked the nation, with analysts raising questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred. It has also dampened Vietnam’s economic outlook and made foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam has been trying to position itself as a home for businesses pivoting their supply chains away from China.
Lan, 67, was convicted in April of embezzlement and bribery amounting to $12.5 billion, equivalent to 3% of the country’s GDP. As chairperson of the Van Thinh Phat real estate firm, the court said she illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that cost the bank $27 billion in losses.
A higher court in Ho Chi Minh on Tuesday rejected her appeal of the conviction but said that her death sentence could be commuted to life if she reimburses three-fourth of the losses, working out to around $11 billion, state media reported.
Her lawyers argued that she had repaid the money but the court disagreed since there were legal issues with some of the seized properties and prosecuting agencies couldn't assess their value, VN Express reported.
Lan's lawyers also noted several mitigating circumstances — she had admitted guilt, showed remorse and had paid back part of the amount.
“I feel pained due to the waste of national resources,” she said last week, according to state media.
But the court said her violations had negatively impacted banking, caused public disorder and eroded people’s trust, VN Express said.
Under Vietnamese law, death sentences aren't immediately carried out and there is an extended legal process, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. He added that Lan would seek another review of the case or a presidential pardon to reduce her sentence.
“Moreover, if she repays at least three-quarters of the misappropriated funds, the court may consider commuting her sentence to life imprisonment,” he said.
Her arrest was among the most high-profile in an anti-corruption drive in Vietnam that intensified after 2022. The so-called Blazing Furnace campaign touched the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics.
Lan, 67, and her family had set up the Van Thing Phat company in 1992, after Vietnam shed its state-run economy in favor of a more market-oriented approach open to foreigners. The company grew into one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centers.
This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry. She orchestrated the 2011 merger of the beleaguered SCB bank with two other lenders in coordination with Vietnam’s central bank. The court said that she used this to tap SCB for cash and, according to government documents, owned more than 90% of the bank while approving thousands of loans to “ghost companies.”
These loans, according to state media, found their way to her and she bribed officials to cover her tracks.
The scale of the crime meant the case was split into two trials, and Lan was sentenced to another life sentence in October. At that trial, she was accused of raising $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by issuing bonds illegally through four companies, state media reported.
She was also found guilty of siphoning off $18 billion obtained through fraud and for using companies controlled by her to illegally transfer more than $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012 and 2022.
Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences in the past decade and executed more than 400 prisoners. It is a possible sentence for 14 different crimes but is typically applied for cases of murder and drug trafficking.
Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, second left, attends trial in an appeal she filed against her death sentence in a financial fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Tran Quynh/VNExpress via AP)
Vietnamese real estate tycoon Truong My Lan attends trial in an appeal she filed against her death sentence in a financial fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Tran Quynh/VNExpress via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats reelected Chuck Schumer as party leader on Tuesday as the party moves into a deeply uncertain time, with no real consensus on a strategy as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
Schumer faced no opposition in the party leadership elections, in which Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin was also reelected to the No. 2 spot and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar became the new No. 3. In a statement, Schumer, of New York, said he was honored to move the party forward “during this crucial period for our country.”
“Our preference is to secure bipartisan solutions wherever possible and look for ways to collaborate with our Republican colleagues to help working families,” Schumer said. “However, our Republican colleagues should make no mistake about it, we will always stand up for our values.”
While Schumer remains popular with his colleagues, it is a bleak moment for Senate Democrats, who had been hopeful that they could hold the majority for the third election in a row. Instead they lost four seats and will be in the minority, 53-47, as Trump takes office and pressures the Senate to quickly confirm his Cabinet nominees.
Unlike eight years ago, when opposition to Trump’s narrow election win fueled enthusiasm in their party, Democratic lawmakers and many of their voters are exhausted and looking for answers.
So far, Democrats have stayed relatively quiet on Trump’s nominees and plans for office – a stark contrast from the loud opposition to Trump when he was elected eight years ago. Schumer has declined to comment on specifics of any nominees, instead allowing Republican reaction to dominate the conversation.
On Monday, Schumer wrote a public letter to South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the incoming Republican majority leader, asking him to resist Trump’s pressure to allow him to appoint some of his nominees without a Senate vote and to insist on full FBI background checks for all nominees. But he has said little else about Trump’s upcoming presidency.
While some have been more aggressive — Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a former chairwoman of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, said that Trump’s nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department is “dangerous” and “nothing short of disaster” — several Democratic senators say they are saving their strength and figuring out a focus.
“Everybody’s in kind of in a wait-and-see mode right now,” said Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who is part of Schumer’s leadership team. “Under the previous Trump administration, there was chaos all the time, all the time. And I do think it is important to pick your battles.”
It’s still unclear which battles they will pick. And Democrats have differing opinions on how to fight them.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, who is also in Democratic leadership, says that “anyone who has a grand strategy is full of crap,” but thinks that Democrats, for now, “need to keep things simple.”
“We need to talk about people, protect people, advocate for people,” Schatz said. “Do not talk about protecting institutions. Do not talk about advocating for institutions. It’s a not just a rhetorical shift, but an attitudinal shift. We have to remind ourselves, that we’re not fighting for programs and projects and line items and agencies or norms. We’re fighting for people.”
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said that he’s spent a lot of time reflecting, and “I don’t think anyone can claim this was a policy election,” and Democrats need to look at cultural issues. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman says Democrats just need to “pace ourselves” and avoid the “massive freakout” of Trump's last term.
Democrats should be preparing, says Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal. He says Schumer is picking his battles “very thoughtfully and strategically.”
“We’re thinking about how we protect against using the FBI, or the prosecutorial authority of the Justice Department for retribution against critics,” said Blumenthal. “How we elevate these issues in a way that American people understand them.”
Democrats know better now, after eight years, “the extraordinary challenges we’re going to face,” Blumenthal said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, is joined by, from left, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., right, as they emerge from Democratic Caucus leadership elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives to join fellow Democrats for a caucus leadership election, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
