Truong My Lan: Vietnamese tycoon in race to raise $9bn to avoid execution

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd753r47815o

37 comments

  4. I’m also in a race to raise $9bn, mine is to avoid working the rest of my life.

  8. Some context:

    The entire point of her harsh sentence was the communist party attempt to give confidence to investors that they are serious about fixing fraud and corruption issues in the country.

    But the death sentence backfired because it was considered over the top for white collar crime so now they are looking for a way to not actually go through with execution but still set precendent

  9. You know, as someone who is against the death penalty, I’m actually on board with this, if just for its value as a bargaining chip. And because it’s a secret in Vietnam, just publicly commute the sentence to give her better leverage for selling her assets. If that fails, take the money and execute her anyway. Everyone who matters wins.

    And really, how awesome would it have been to watch former billionaires face a firing squad for their role in the 2008 meltdown? It’s not morally right, but damn, it would have felt good.

  10. Highly sus, if she can somehow raise that money while in custody, obviously means there is hidden money the authorities missed. More likely than not the same money she cheated and stashed under some relative or close family member name.

  14. This is such an odd morality. In general, in the west, if you believe capital punishment is sometimes morally right, it is because you probably believe in an ideal of justice that can only be served in some cases by taking the convicted’s life. If you don’t believe capital punishment is ever justified, it could be because of abstract ideal of justice as well, or it could be because your view of justice is inherently pragmatic.

    But it is unusual for me to encounter such a blatantly pragmatic view espousing the death penalty. It feels like such a relic of the days of communist revolutions. I recognize it must obviously be quite common in many parts of the world, but as a westerner it is so uncommon to encounter for me.

  15. These are the kind of sentences we need to be handing down for white collar crime in the US.

  18. Honestly? This is how we should treat all billionaires/millionaires who commit blatant financial crimes. Give the people back their money or you die seems like an effective enforcement method against these wannabe oligarchs.

  20. We now know how much the value of human life at least in Vietnam.

  21. She should try selling red hats, or shoes, or Bibles, or start a failed college, or NFTs, etc.

  22. I like this policy of executing Billionaires. Elon Musk should be executed for tanking twitter after buying it with people’s money.

  23. “In April a trial court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44 billion (£34.5 billion).” That’s a lot of money…I cannot even fathom the wealth as I sit here in my humble abode. 

  24. You realize no fucking way Judge even head of minster,state even president and general secretary had sentences it .No change they make her like a example to every one dare to cross line

  29. idea: borrow 5 billion dollars, go to a casino and play roulette, bet it all on black, win

  30. Shouldn’t have skimped on getting the cheaper lawyers.

  31. It’s not really a race when she has roughly $17 billion hidden somewhere.

  33. Being a street vendor, in the first place how did she ever got the loans approved by Saigon Commercial Bank to buy a swath of properties, hotels in just a matter of years? Something fishy within Saigon Commercial Bank. Not to mention the State Bank of Vietnam who kept propping up the commercial bank over 20 yrs. me thinks corruption all around

  34. So $9 billion to spend life in a Vietnamese jail or die. To be honest I rather die.

  35. Execution is maybe probably definitely a little too harsh, but it always gives me a bit of schadenfreude seeing the rich actually punished for crimes. Maybe if you didn’t want to ruin your life, you shouldn’t have stolen $44bn dollars. I can say pretty confidently ive lived my whole life and never stolen $44bn.

  36. What wacky country would execute a billionaire?!?

    Crazy to think that there’s an actual amount of money that’d prevent the government from carrying out whatever a sentence for a crime is.

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