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STORY: A court in Vietnam upheld a death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan on Tuesday (December 3).Lan was sentenced to death in April for her role in what was Vietnam’s biggest financial fraud case on record.She had appealed against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery in the high-profile $12.5 billion case.But the High People’s Court determined there was no basis to reduce Lan’s death sentence, according to a Vietnamese online newspaper.The media report also said it is possible the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment if Lan can return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row.The case is part of a years-long crackdown on corruption in a campaign locally known as “Blazing Furnace.”Lan, who was the chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, still has the right to request a review under Vietnam’s cassation or retrial procedures.Her arrest in 2022 sparked a run on Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank which was at the center of the fraud and largely owned by Lan through her proxies.Apart from the death sentence, Lan was handed a life sentence at a separate trial in October.She was found guilty of obtaining property by fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border money transfers.
