The appeal of a Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27 billion began on Monday after she pleaded for a more “lenient and humane” sentence.

Property developer Truong My Lan, 68, was convicted earlier this year of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) — which prosecutors said she controlled — and given the death sentence in one of the biggest corruption cases in history.

Tens of thousands of people who had invested their savings in the bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims.

Lan, wearing a blue shirt, was brought to court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday under tight security.

The court will review Lan’s request for a reduced sentence, along with that of 47 other defendants, during a three-week appeal attended by 100 lawyers, state media said.

Lan has also asked to be let off a $26.5 milllion court fee.

As the hearing began, around a dozen people staged a small protest outside an SCB branch in Hanoi, demanding the victims be repaid.

In her handwritten appeal of more than five pages seen by AFP, Lan said that the death sentence was “too severe and harsh”.

She asked the court to consider a more “lenient and humane approach”.

“Because of my passion for business and the desire to build and contribute through creating world-class projects for Vietnam, I have traded and sacrificed a lot of happiness for myself and my family,” the appeal stated.

Lan said she had suffered due to the pressure of negative public opinion.

“Every night I still feel tormented and wonder why my family and I are in this situation,” Lan said.

The appeal comes after Lan was convicted of money laundering and jailed for life in a separate case last month.

Fake loan applications

During her first trial in April, Lan was found guilty of embezzling $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said the total damages caused by the scam amounted to $27 billion — equivalent to around six percent of the country’s 2023 GDP.

The court ordered Lan to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation.

One of the victims, Le Hang, 84, told AFP that even though she lost more than half a million dollars through the fraud, she did not want Lan to die.

“She must live to fix what she has done and repay people like me,” said Hang, who has regularly attended protests in front of the Ho Chi Minh City court.

“I hope she survives.”

Eighty-five others were also sentenced on charges ranging from bribery and abuse of power to appropriation and violations of banking law.

They were arrested as part of a national corruption crackdown dubbed the “burning furnace” that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam’s business elite.

Between 2012 and 2022, Lan used nearly 1,300 fake loan applications to withdraw money from SCB, in which she owned a 90 percent stake, the court found.

Her driver transported the equivalent of more than $4.4 billion in cash from SCB’s headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City to her nearby home and the head offices of her real estate development group Van Thinh Phat, state media reported, citing the police investigation.