Prosecutors have called for a reduced life sentence for property tycoon Truong My Lan, citing her repayment of a quarter of the VND30 trillion (US$1.16 billion) she defrauded from thousands of bond investors.
Lan, who in October last year received a life sentence for orchestrating the fraud, is now defending herself in an HCMC appeal court and seeking a commutation.
Prosecutors told the court Thursday that authorities have so far collected VND8 trillion worth of assets from Lan, and would use them to pay victims, warranting a reduction of her life sentence.
But they refused to support Lan’s appeal against two other sentences: 12 years for money laundering and eight years for illegal cross-border money transferring.
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Property tycoon Truong My Lan seen at an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City in April 2025. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung |
They also sought a lighter sentence for Lan’s husband, Hong Kong property mogul Eric Chu.
Though Chu has not appealed his two-year jail sentence for helping Lan launder money, he has turned in assets to the court to compensate for the losses caused, which the judges should take into account, they added.
The court of first instance in October found Lan, chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat, guilty of masterminding a fradulent bond issuance plan involving 35,800 investors.
The court also found her guilty of laundering money worth VND445 trillion which she embezzled from Saigon Commercial Bank, a bank she indirectly controlled.
She and her accomplices were found guilty of illegally sending and receiving $4.5 billion from overseas.
Earlier last year she was also given a death sentence for embezzling VND677 trillion (US$27 billion) from Saigon Commercial Bank over a 10-year period.
