The jury in Ho Chi Minh City rejected all defence arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, finding her guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank over a decade. Her actions had “eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state,” the jury said, according to state media.
Prosecutors said during the trial they had seized more than 1,000 properties belonging to Lan.
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 percent 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.
Authorities have also said $5.2 million allegedly given by Lan and some SCB bankers to state officials to conceal the bank’s violations and poor financial situation was the largest-ever bribe recorded in Vietnam.
The woman who was offered the bribe — Do Thi Nhan, the former head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s inspection team — said during the trial the cash was handed to her in Styrofoam boxes by the former CEO of SCB, Vo Tan Van.
After realising they contained money, Nhan refused the boxes but Van declined to take them back, state media reported.
More than 4,400 people have been indicted during Vietnam’s corruption crackdown, across more than 1,700 graft cases, since 2021.
A top Vietnamese luxury property tycoon — Do Anh Dung, head of the Tan Hoang Minh group — was sentenced to eight years in prison last month after he was found guilty of cheating thousands of investors in a $355 million bond scam.
