Court reduces sentence by 2 years for Hong Kong tycoon Eric Chu, husband of death row convict Truong My Lan

Chu, as a foreigner who did not speak Vietnamese, only followed his wife instructions in helping her embezzle money from Saigon Commercial Bank over the course of 10 years, the judges said at the People’s High Court of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

The judges agreed with the proposal of the prosecutors to commute his sentence for several reasons.

They highlighted Chu’s role as one of the first foreign businesspeople to establish a company in Vietnam, creating many jobs and contributing to the local economy.

He has helped build field hospitals in HCMC during Covid-19, and has submitted VND15 billion (US$590,000) more in compensation after the first trial in April, they added.

In April Chu was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating banking regulations by signing documents to help Lan appropriate VND9 trillion from SCB.

But his wife, Lan, was not granted a commutation on Tuesday as the judges found "no grounds" to reduce her death sentence.

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

Lan and her accomplices were found guilty in April for embezzling Saigon Commercial Bank and causing it a loss of VND677 trillion ($27 billion).

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.