Court Sentences Top Billionaire Truong My Lan to Death, Details Emerge

• Truong My Lan, a 67-year-old Vietnamese billionaire, has been sentenced to death over a fraud allegation in the country
• The property developer was handed the sentence of death after being found guilty of looting one of the country's largest banks
• Truong My Lan was, however, asked to pay the sum of $27bn, the amount the prosecutor said may not be recovered

Legit.ng journalist Bada Yusuf is an accomplished politics and current affairs editor, boasting over seven years of experience in journalism and writing.

Vietnam has had the most spectacular trial in the country's history, which befitted the greatest bank fraud the world has ever seen.

At the state's yellow entrance of the courthouse since the colonial era in Ho Chi Minh City, Truong My Lan, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer, was handed a death sentence for frauding one of the country's largest banks for the past 11 years.

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Why Vietnam billionaire was sentenced to death

My Lan was one of the very few women who were sentenced to death in Vietnam over a white-collar crime, a rare verdict.

According to the BBC, the ruling is a reflection of the dizzying scale of the crime. My Lan was convicted after being found guilty of taking out a loan of $44bn (£35bn) from the Saigon Commercial Bank.

According to the verdict, she was meant to return a sum of $27bn, which the prosecutor had said might never be recovered. Some are of the view that the death penalty is the court's job to force her to return some of the mission billions.

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Details of death sentence to Truong My Lan

The secretive communist authorities were forthright and unusually honest about the fraud, releasing the details to the media. The authorities said 2,700 people testified against her, and ten state prosecutors and 200 lawyers worked in her prosecution.

It was learnt that the evidence was in 104 boxes and weighed six tonnes. Truong My Lan, however, denied the charges and can appeal, but 85 others were tried along with her.

In addition, the court found all the defendants guilty, but four of them received live imprisonment. Others were given between 20 and three years in jail. Her husband and niece received nine and 17 years in jail, respectively.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic planes collide

In another report, Legit.ng reported tension at Heathrow Airport in London when the wings of a British Airways aircraft clashed with those of Virgin Atlantic aircraft.

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The incident reportedly caused minor damage to the airlines, with no injury recorded and no delay in their movement.

The airport authority said it was working with the emergency partners of its airlines to address situations like that.

Source: Legit.ng