Vietnam death row tycoon awaits verdict in new trial

A Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27 billion arrived in court on Thursday to face a potential life sentence in a related trial on money laundering charges.

Property developer Truong My Lan was found guilty in April of swindling cash from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) -- which prosecutors said she controlled -- in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, and sentenced to death.

Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims.

On Thursday, Lan and 33 other defendants -- including her husband and niece -- were brought to court in Ho Chi Minh City in a convoy of police vans.

Wearing a face mask, Lan sat at the front of the court flanked by two police officers to await the verdict after a four-week trial.

Prosecutors have called for a life sentence for Lan on charges of money laundering, illegal cross-border trafficking of cash, and fraud.

Around 36,000 people who bought bonds issued by SCB have been identified as victims of the fraud.

Online noodle seller Nguyen Thi Huong told AFP she wanted to die after losing $20,000, her entire savings, in 2022.

"When I learned that I had lost all the money I had deposited at SCB Bank, I felt like I was losing my mind," said Huong, 33.

She developed insomnia, her health deteriorated from stress and she no longer had money to send her children to extra classes, making them fall behind their peers, she said.

"I sat by my father's grave, and wished he would take me with him in death," Huong said.

State media reported earlier that Lan and her associates stole around $18 billion by taking assets from SCB between early 2018 and October 2022. Lan effectively owned a 90 percent stake in the bank.

Lan, chair of major real estate developer Van Thinh Phat, ordered her accomplices to withdraw cash and transfer it out of SCB's system, state media said.

She then hid the origins of the money and used it to settle debts between companies or transferred the money abroad for fake contracts.

Dozens of victims in the case held protests in central Hanoi as her latest trial started, demanding authorities help them get their money back.

Lan had apologised to the victims in court, according to state media, and said she was "not a bad person".

She was given the death penalty in April after being found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion -- a verdict she is appealing, though no date has yet been announced for it.

Prosecutors said the total damages caused amounted to $27 billion -- a figure equivalent to about six percent of Vietnam's gross domestic product in 2023.