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Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A Vietnamese appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for wealthy real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, local media reported. Lan was convicted of financial fraud, including embezzlement, bribery and banking violations, and sentenced to death in April in what is the Asian nation's largest-ever financial fraud case.
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Prosecutors said Lan, chairperson of real estate firm Van Thinh Phat, caused Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, which she controlled through shell companies, to lose about $44 billion over a decade.
She was convicted of embezzling $12.5 billion, with the remaining $27 billion having been misappropriated.
The 68-year-old real estate tycoon appealed her conviction, but judges at the People's High Court of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday said there were no mitigating factors to reduce her sentence, local online newspaper VnExpress reported.
The law permits for the court to reduce her death sentence to life imprisonment if Lan can return three-fourths of the $12.5 billion she was convicted of embezzling, the judges said.
The high-profile trial included 84 defendants who were all convicted, including Lan's husband, Hong Kong investor Eric Chu Nap-kee.
