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.
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.
Teehee