In New York, real estate fraud is a serious crime; ask Donald Trump who has been accused of it more than once, and where the clamorous lawsuit brought by NY AG Letitia James is still ongoing.
But in Vietnam, real estate fraud can lead to a death sentence, as has happened to Truong My Lan, a Vietnamese property tycoon who has been sentenced to death following a conviction in a colossal fraud case. The court found her guilty of orchestrating a complex scheme that defrauded the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) of billions of dollars.
While the amounts in question may differ, the charges are similar to those brought against Donald Trump. Judge Arthur Engoron found in the lawsuit over which he presided, that “Trump and his company massively overvalued his assets, creating ‘a fantasy world’ on the financial statements he gave to banks and others”; in the end defrauding them of $355 million dollars. Trump’s “real estate empire was built on fraud.”
The case has also been compared to that against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been found guilty on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. But even the $10 billion that Bankman swindled out of his clients are dwarfed by Lan’s scheme.
This case against Truong My Lan has been marked as the largest financial fraud case in Vietnam’s history. Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion, which is nearly 6% of the country’s GDP for 2023. Despite arguments from the defense and consideration of Lan’s previous charitable activities, the court upheld the death sentence due to the severity of the crime and its impact on the nation’s financial stability and public trust in the government.
Police have identified around 42,000 victims of the scandal, which has shocked the Southeast Asian country.
Lan, who is married to a wealthy Hong Kong businessman also on trial, was accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90% stake. Police say the scam’s victims are all SCB bondholders who cannot withdraw their money and have not received interest or principal payments since Lan’s arrest.
Prosecutors said during the trial that they had seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan.
The case has attracted a great deal of attention, both domestically and internationally, as it is part of a broader anti-corruption drive in Vietnam, where numerous officials and members of the business elite are being held accountable for their criminal actions.
After a five-week trial, 85 others also face verdicts and sentencing on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.
In final remarks to the court last week Lan was remorseful, and avowed that she had contemplated suicide.
“In my desperation, I thought of death,” she said, according to state media. “I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment — the banking sector — which I have little knowledge of.”
