Assets linked to Truong My Lan cannot be handled by SCB alone: appeal court

By Hai Duyen, Quoc Thang December 3, 2024 | 06:52 pm PT

Saigon Commercial Bank cannot handle all 1,120 assets linked to Truong My Lan by itself, and its actions to be supervised by prosecutors and the police, a court has ruled.

The People’s High Court of Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday overruled a verdict by the court of first instance in April this year that allows the bank to liquidate the assets and appropriate the proceeds to recompense the losses Lan and her accomplices caused.

The appeal court also rejected Lan’s petition to unfreeze many properties in HCMC, including an old villa District 1 valued at VND700 billion (US$28 million).

An old villa linked to property tycoon Truong My Lan. Photo by VnExpress

She claimed the assets belonged to her family members, but the judges determined that they belong to her and so must remain frozen to enable their liquidation by the bank.

On Tuesday the court upheld the death sentence for Lan, who was found guilty in April for masterminding an embezzlement scheme that caused SCB losses of VND677 trillion (US$27 billion).

They said there was no ground to commute her sentence.

Vietnamese law allows a death sentence to be commuted to life if the guilty party recompenses three-fourths of the losses they caused.

But the judges did commute the sentences of some of Lan’s accomplices, including her husband, Hong Kong property tycoon Eric Chu, and her niece, Truong Hue Van.

In a separate trial in October Lan was awarded a life sentence for "fraudulent appropriation of assets" through bond issuances and illegal cross-border money transfers among other crimes.