HANOI: A pair of luxury Hermes handbags that once belonged to a jailed Vietnamese property tycoon sold at auction for more than US$500,000, state media reported, as the government seeks to recover funds linked to a US$27 billion fraud.
Property developer Truong My Lan was convicted in 2024 of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which prosecutors said she controlled.
She was initially sentenced to death in one of Vietnam's biggest corruption cases, but now faces life in prison after Hanoi abolished capital punishment for some crimes.
A confiscated Hermes bag with white gemstones sold Thursday (May 21) at the Ho Chi Minh City Asset Auction Service Center for 11.6 billion Vietnamese dong (US$440,000), state media reported. A second Hermes bag sold for 2.5 billion dong (US$95,000).
The disgraced tycoon had asked a court to return the rare albino Birkin bags, saying she had purchased one in Italy and received the other as a gift.
They were "mementos" she wanted returned to her family, state media reported.
Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings in Saigon Commercial Bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims.
Lan was ordered to compensate victims and has paid more than 12 trillion dong (US$455 million) to bondholders so far, according to a statement on the government's website.
Three cars once belonging to Lan -- a Maybach, a BMW and a Lexus -- are set to be auctioned Friday. - AFP
