Vietnam’s richest woman Truong My Lan was involved in a fraud case worth more than US$12 billion. She was sentenced to death for corruption in April last year and life imprisonment for financial fraud, money laundering and other crimes in October last year. Reuters reported on Monday (April 21) that due to the recovery of part of the funds, some charges were reduced from life imprisonment to 30 years in prison, but it did not affect the death penalty ruling in April.

In April, a Vietnamese court found Zhang Meilan guilty of violating financial institution loan regulations, embezzlement and bribery, and sentenced her to 20 years in prison and death penalty respectively. The three crimes were sentenced to death penalty. Local media reported in June that she was willing to repay the seized assets and appealed to avoid the death penalty.

In the December verdict, the Supreme People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City rejected the appeal, pointing out that Zhang Meilan had no reason to reduce her sentence, so it upheld the original verdict. However, if she can return 4/3 of the embezzled public funds, she may be commuted to life imprisonment.

The court also found her guilty of all three charges of property fraud, money laundering and illegal cross-border currency transportation on October 17, and sentenced her to 8 and 12 years in prison respectively, and life imprisonment.

She was accused of illegally transferring US$4.5 billion to and from home and laundering 445 trillion Vietnamese dong (about HK$133.5 billion), and her company was accused of illegally raising more than 30 trillion Vietnamese dong (about HK$9 billion) by issuing bonds to investors.

Reuters quoted Vietnamese media on Monday as saying that the sentence in the case was reduced from life imprisonment to 30 years in prison because part of the debt was recovered.