WEBVTT 00:00:03.959 --> 00:00:06.795 Hello, I'm Regina Vaid and welcome to this hour. 00:00:06.795 --> 00:00:08.400 In the past few minutes, 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.859 a court in Vietnam has sentenced a wealthy proper developer to death 00:00:12.859 --> 00:00:15.719 for defrauding a bank of billions of dollars. 00:00:15.719 --> 00:00:18.359 67-year-old Truong My Lan was found guilty 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:20.640 of embezzlement bribing State officials 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.680 and violating Bank lending regulations 00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:27.260 after she used her hidden ownership of the Saigon Commercial Bank 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:31.919 to channel $44 billion of loans to her own companies. 00:00:31.919 --> 00:00:32.608 It's been described 00:00:32.608 --> 00:00:36.360 as one of the greatest Brank frauds in history. 00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:39.241 Well, for more on this, we can go straight to Bangkok 00:00:39.241 --> 00:00:40.960 and join our Southeast Asia 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.190 correspondent Jonathan Head. 00:00:43.190 --> 00:00:45.399 First of all, Jonathan, if you could just tell us 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:48.251 a little bit more about what the court said today 00:00:48.251 --> 00:00:50.559 and the background to this case. 00:00:50.559 --> 00:00:53.359 Well the the Court's been giving enormous amounts of detail NOTE Paragraph 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:55.759 about this case. 00:00:55.759 --> 00:00:57.570 Through its five weeks, 00:00:57.570 --> 00:01:00.120 so everyone in Vietnam knows a lot about it, 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:01.920 not that's quite unusual there. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:02.760 They've wanted the public 00:01:02.760 --> 00:01:04.228 to know about this case. 00:01:04.228 --> 00:01:06.662 It is extraordinary the amounts of money 00:01:06.662 --> 00:01:08.320 are absolutely sterling. 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:11.491 We're talking about a significant junk of Vietnam's GDP 00:01:11.491 --> 00:01:13.269 that this woman was able to siphon off 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:17.591 over 11 years of through these secretly channeled loans 00:01:17.591 --> 00:01:19.509 that went through a whole bunch of front companies 00:01:19.509 --> 00:01:21.610 and proxies to her own companies. 00:01:21.610 --> 00:01:24.020 The prosecutors believe that 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:27.505 of that 44 billion perhaps 27 billion dollars 00:01:27.505 --> 00:01:29.290 may never be recovered. 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:31.020 That is a staggering loss 00:01:31.020 --> 00:01:34.314 and will be very very tough for the State Bank 00:01:34.314 --> 00:01:37.399 to make up in terms of saving the bank. 00:01:37.399 --> 00:01:41.449 Really the authorities have sort of blamed Truong My Lan 00:01:41.449 --> 00:01:43.238 and have talked about the way 00:01:43.238 --> 00:01:44.759 in which she was bribing officials 00:01:44.759 --> 00:01:48.110 and the kind of sophistication of this network 00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:52.640 and really it is part of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:54.149 that's been going for several years 00:01:54.149 --> 00:01:55.540 led by the communist authorities 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:57.490 whose say they're determined to stamp it out 00:01:57.490 --> 00:01:58.857 but of course it does raise a lot of questions 00:01:58.857 --> 00:02:00.738 which is how was it that this woman. 00:02:00.738 --> 00:02:01.960 She's very high-profile. 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:04.879 She's one of the biggest property owners in Vietnam. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:07.879 How was she able to do that for 11 years 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:09.440 and of course officially the authorities say 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:11.148 well she was paying off this person and that 00:02:11.148 --> 00:02:11.854 and hiding this and that 00:02:11.854 --> 00:02:13.162 but it is extraordinary that 00:02:13.162 --> 00:02:14.092 it went on for 11 years 00:02:14.092 --> 00:02:14.646 without being stopped 00:02:14.646 --> 00:02:17.259 and I think those questions still hang over 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:20.239 whether the Vietnamese authorities are capable 00:02:20.239 --> 00:02:22.879 of reigning in this kind of fraud. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.360 And Jonathan you say that this was a trial 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:27.859 that was followed by so many people in Vietnam 00:02:27.859 --> 00:02:30.319 and Truong My Lan is a well-known 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:31.950 property developer in the country 00:02:31.950 --> 00:02:34.199 but now she faces the death penalty. 00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:36.879 That itself is extraordinary. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:39.082 Normally the death penalty is not usually 00:02:39.082 --> 00:02:40.413 handed down on women 00:02:40.413 --> 00:02:42.866 but I think this case was so exceptional 00:02:42.866 --> 00:02:44.740 in terms of its scale and the damages 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:46.640 it's done to Vietnam's finances. 00:02:46.640 --> 00:02:47.640 They probably felt 00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:49.120 they needed to make an example of her. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:51.280 They may also be trying to encourage her 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.584 to give as much money back as they can get her to do. 00:02:54.584 --> 00:02:55.480 This is something 00:02:55.480 --> 00:02:58.480 the other 80 defendants in court today 00:02:58.480 --> 00:02:59.340 have largely done. 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:01.032 They're all more minor, of course, 00:03:01.032 --> 00:03:02.080 but these are all the people 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:03.693 accused of conspiring with her 00:03:03.693 --> 00:03:06.331 including, for example, a Chief Inspector of the State Bank 00:03:06.331 --> 00:03:08.570 who was bribed 5 million dollar 00:03:08.570 --> 00:03:09.640 according to prosecutors. 00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:11.288 In order to look the other way, 00:03:11.288 --> 00:03:14.013 they've all pleaded guilty and offered to bring back 00:03:14.013 --> 00:03:15.390 as much money as they can. 00:03:15.390 --> 00:03:16.959 I think the state believes that 00:03:16.959 --> 00:03:19.344 Truong My Lan must have far more assets 00:03:19.344 --> 00:03:21.099 that she can return to the state 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:22.800 to try and make up this massive hole 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:24.519 in this bank's finances. 00:03:24.519 --> 00:03:27.120 Okay, Jonathan Head, in Bangkok 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:29.120 watching that huge trial in Vietnam 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:30.840 and that verdict for thank you very much 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:32.600 and Jonathan's written an analysis piece 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:34.552 on the BBC News website with more background too.