Truong My Lan’s death sentence could reportedly be commuted to life in prison if she repays three-quarters of the $12 billion she was convicted of embezzling.

Summary

Vietnam’s High People’s Court upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, convicted of embezzlement and bribery in a record $12 billion fraud case.

Lan can avoid execution by returning $9 billion (three-quarters of the stolen funds), potentially reducing her sentence to life imprisonment.

Her crimes caused widespread economic harm, including a bank run and $24 billion in government intervention to stabilize the financial system.

Lan has admitted guilt but prosecutors deemed her actions unprecedentedly damaging. She retains limited legal recourse through retrial procedures.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      20 days ago

      Do you mean the deal to avoid the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment, or a reduced sentence for returning the stolen goods?

      If it is the former, I kinda doubt that a normal thief is looking at the death penalty. If it is the latter, I wouldn’t see a reason that they wouldn’t. Even in the capital of cruel and unusual punishments, Saudi Arabia, followed closely by the US, they don’t deny a lesser sentence when restitution is an option.

    • nutsack@lemmy.worldEnglish
      54·
      20 days ago

      everyone in government and in business here in vietnam is stealing and scamming. everyone knows it, and it’s done openly. you only get “caught” when someone important doesn’t like you anymore.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    256·
    20 days ago

    She’s a real estate profiteering billionaire who conned regular people out of their savings. I say let her pay 100% back and then fetch the guillotine.

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    20 days ago

    returning $9 billion (three-quarters of the stolen funds)

    You can keep the 3 billion and live?

    reducing her sentence to life imprisonment.

    but it has to be in jail?

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      411·
      20 days ago

      You can keep the 3 billion and live?

      No, as another comment pointed out, that isn’t legal. The assets she has from her embezzled money aren’t liquid; she doesn’t have $12 billion literally sitting in a bank account. These have to be sold off for đồng, and especially if she’s forced to quickly sell them off in exchange for her life (somehow another reason why the death penalty is stupid), she’ll likely retrieve substantially less than she could otherwise by being able to wait for better opportunities to sell.

    • HopesBeyondTheSky@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      20 days ago

      She still deserves to be in jail. $12 billion is no small amount, and if she can pay back that $9 billion, or even if she can pay back the entire amount, she still had committed a serious crime and deserves to go to jail.

      And don’t even think about her keeping that $3 billion. That’s illegal money that she still needs to pay back.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          11·
          20 days ago

          Perhaps it’s a realization that under the circumstances of a forced sale, she couldn’t possibly repay the total. In which case, with death inevitable, could she leave it to a loved one instead? Probably it could be seized but there’d be a legal tangle which repayment would avoid? Just speculation.