Vietnamese female billionaire sentenced to death for biggest bank fraud

In one of the greatest bank fraud cases in the world, Vietnamese billionaire has been sentenced to death by lethal injection, BBC reported.

Truong My Lan, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer, has been sentenced to capital punishment on Thursday for looting $44bn (£35bn) from Vietnams one of the biggest banks — Saigon Commercial Bank over a period of 11 years.

According to state media VnExpress, Lan illegally controlled Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank between 2012 and 2022 and allowed 2,500 loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion to the bank.

As per the Vietnamese law, no individual is allowed to hold more than 5% of shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that Lan, through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial.

She has been charged of using her power to appoint her own people in high positions and then making them grant her hundreds of loans to the shell companies she owned. Her loans made up 93% of all the bank's lending.

She is also accused of bribing people in power.

The high profile case involved 2,700 people to testify, 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers.

Along with Lan, 85 other people have also been charged out of which four have received life in jail, while others have to serve prison time.