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ANOI, Vietnam — A Vietnamese court has upheld Truong My Lan's death sentence for embezzlement and bribery in a massive $12 billion financial fraud case. The High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected her appeal, citing the unprecedented scale of the crime.

    Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was initially sentenced to death in April for her role in Vietnam's largest recorded financial scam. Although she has admitted guilt and shown remorse, prosecutors deemed this insufficient to reduce her sentence. Her lawyer argued that mitigating circumstances included paying back part of the embezzled funds.

    However, Lan still holds a glimmer of hope: if she returns three-quarters of the stolen money while on death row, it's possible her sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment. This is part of Vietnam's anti-graft campaign known as "Blazing Furnace," which has seen several high-profile business executives and state officials jailed.

    The prosecution emphasized that Lan's actions had far-reaching consequences for Vietnamese society, the financial market, and economy. Her arrest in 2022 triggered a bank run on Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of Vietnam's largest private banks, which was heavily involved in the fraud. The central bank subsequently pumped $24 billion into SCB to stabilize it.

    Lan still has the right to request a review under Vietnam's cassation or retrial procedures. In addition to her death sentence, she received a life sentence at a separate trial for obtaining property by fraud, money laundering, and illegal cross-border transactions.