Death row property tycoon Truong My Lan asks court to release personal properties

The 68-year-old property tycoon told the People’s High Court of Ho Chi Minh City Monday to consider the circumstances in which she committed her crimes and commute the death sentence.

She said she only agreed to be involved with Saigon Commercial Bank when the State Bank of Vietnam asked her to be a consultant for its restructuring.

The People’s Court of HCMC ruled in April that she took advantage of her position to embezzle VND677 trillion (US$27 billion) from the bank, and awarded the death sentence.

"It hurts me to see many people being dragged into the crimes," she told the court on Monday. "I am not blaming anyone nor defending myself, and I accept the full consequences of what I did. I just want to explain so the judges will understand and commute my sentence."

She held no position at the lender nor did she put any family member in a management position, she said.

An old villa belonging to Truong My Lan in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Lan also requested the judges to unfreeze some assets belonging to her and her family.

They include some buildings in HCMC which her family bought before she was involved with the bank, she claimed.

Among them are a house each in Districts 1 and 3, an old villa, an office building which SCB is using as its headquarters, and a yacht belonging to Times Square, a company owned by her husband Eric Chu.

Lan also received a life sentence in a trial that ended last month for "fraudulent appropriation of assets" through bond issuances and illegal cross-border money transfers among others.