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Vietnam sentences death row tycoon to life in prison for money laundering

Vietnam sentences death row tycoon to life in prison for money laundering

A Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for fraudulently acquiring properties worth billions of dollars. This case was a centerpiece of the government’s crackdown on corruption.

Truong My Lan was already convicted in April by the same court in Ho Chi Minh City of defrauding $12.5 billion – nearly 3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product – in a separate case and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

The trial was split into two parts due to the multitude of allegations against her, and Thursday’s verdict deepens Lan’s legal problems as she awaits the hearing of an appeal against her death sentence.

Vietnam has handed down more than 2,000 death sentences and executed more than 400 prisoners in the last decade. The punishment is possible for 14 different crimes, but is generally only imposed for murder and drug trafficking.

“Standing here today is too high a price for me. I consider this to be my fate and a career accident,” online newspaper VNexpress quoted Lan, chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat, as saying in her final speech to the jury last week.

“For the rest of my life, I will never forget that my actions affected tens of thousands of families.”