HANOI: A court in Vietnam on Tuesday upheld a death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery in a high-profile US$12 billion fraud case, state media reported.
Lan, the chairman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was sentenced to death in April for her role in what was Vietnams biggest financial fraud case on record.
The high peoples court in Ho Chi Minh City determined there was no basis to reduce Lans death sentence, reported online newspaper VnExpress.
If Lan is able to return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row, it is possible the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment, the report said.
She is one of the most famous business executives and state officials jailed in the communist countrys lengthy anti-graft campaign known as Blazing Furnace.
The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation and the sum of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable, the prosecution was quoted as saying at the appeal hearing by state-run online newspaper VietnamNet.
The defendants actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, the economy, it said.
State media cited Lans lawyer as saying she had many mitigating circumstances, including having admitted guilt, showing remorse and paying back part of the amount of money embezzled, but prosecutors said that was insufficient.
Reuters could not immediately reach Lans lawyers for comment.
Lan still has the right to request a review under Vietnams cassation or retrial procedures.
Lans arrest in 2022 sparked a run on one of the countrys largest private banks by deposits, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), which was at the centre of the fraud and largely owned by Lan through her proxies.
Documents reviewed by Reuters showed Vietnams central bank had as of April pumped US$24 billion in special loans into SCB in an unprecedented rescue.
Aside from the death sentence, Lan was handed a life sentence at a separate trial in October after being found guilty of obtaining property by fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers.