A LOCAL property tycoon who was jailed for life in a US$17bil (RM74.9bil) money laundering case had her sentence cut to 30 years on appeal after she claimed what happened was “an accident”.
Truong My Lan (pic) had already lost a challenge against the death penalty in a separate case in which she was found guilty in April last year of stealing money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and fraud amounting to US$27bil (RM119bil).
The appeal court ruled there was no basis to reduce her sentence, but said she could still escape the death penalty if she returned three quarters of the stolen assets.
Four months later, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday ruled that a life sentence she was handed for three crimes during a second trial in October would be reduced to 30 years.
“Lan played the major role... (but) we also take into consideration the amount of money that Lan has spent on overcoming the consequences,” judge Pham Cong Muoi said following discussions earlier in the appeal about how her assets may be used to compensate victims of her crimes.
In her final words before the court last week, Lan, 68, described what happened as “an accident”.
“Since being jailed, I have tried my best... to seek the best solutions to (deal with my) projects and properties,” she was quoted as saying by state media. “Please acknowledge my effort.”
She was found guilty last October of laundering US$17.7bil and illegal cross-border trafficking of US$4.5bil (RM19.8bil).
She was also found guilty of bond fraud to the tune of US$1.2bil (RM5.3bil).
During the trial, the court found Lan was “the mastermind, committed the crime with sophisticated methods, many times, causing especially serious consequences”.
During her first trial in April last year, Lan was found guilty of embezzling US$12.5bil (RM55.1bil) but prosecutors said the damages caused by the scam totalled US$27bil – equivalent to around 6% of the country’s 2023 GDP.
Lan owned just 5% of shares in SCB on paper but the court concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90% through family, friends and staff.
Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, prompting rare protests in the communist nation. — AFP
