Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for R820 billion fraud
Truong My Lan now joins a small number of women in Vietnam facing capital punishment for financial crimes.
Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for $44bn fraud / X: @MatsangaDr
Bongani Bingwa interviews Adam Gilchrist about this and other trending world news.
Listen below (skip to 02:20).
A 67-year-old Vietnamese real estate mogul has received a death sentence for embezzling funds from one of the nation's largest banks over 11 years.
Truong My Lan now joins a small number of women in Vietnam facing capital punishment for financial crimes.
She was found guilty of securing $44 billion in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank.
While the verdict mandates her to repay $27 billion, prosecutors doubt the full amount will be recovered.
Truong My Lan's husband and niece have also been sentenced to nine and 17 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.
BBC indicates that the prominent business figure orchestrated the consolidation of three struggling banks into the larger Saigon Commercial Bank.
Vietnamese law restricts individuals from holding more than 5% of a bank's shares, yet prosecutors allege that Truong My Lan, through numerous shell companies and proxies, effectively controlled over 90% of Saigon Commercial Bank.
They have accused her of manipulating this control to appoint sympathetic managers and approve numerous loans to her network of shell companies.
"This is one of the greatest bank frauds that the world has ever seen."
- Adam Gilchrist
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.