We sometimes hear news stories that are difficult to believe. I think that’s how many people felt when they heard about a bank fraud of some $27 billion that ended up in a death sentence.
It happened to a top Vietnamese property tycoon, Van Thinh Phat who has been through a panel of jurors and two judges that rejected all of her arguments. She was found guilty of stealing cash from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over the course of a decade.
According to the verdict in the Ho Chi Minh City trial: “The defendant’s actions… eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the (Communist) Party and state.”
It was a five-week trial and Van Thinh Phat took the brunt of the crime. There were 85 others who were also charged with various crimes that ranged from abuse of power to violations of banking law and even bribery.
Out of the 86 people who were sentenced, four were given life in prison and the others received jail terms between 20 years and down to three years suspended. Van Thinh Phat is the only one who received the death sentence.
The arrests came as part of a national crackdown on corruption that has caught up a number of Vietnamese business elites. Van Thinh Phat is going to pay the ultimate sentence, but it isn’t the first time that she thought about death.
In a statement to the court, she said that in her desperation, she thought about death. She said: “I am so angry that I was stupid enough to get involved in this very fierce business environment—the banking sector—which I have little knowledge of.”
As the court was working on the inside, there were many people who were protesting on the outside. After all, there have been about 42,000 victims of this scandal, including many who lost their life savings.
This will be one to watch.