Property developer Truong My Lan, 68, was found guilty in April of swindling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) — which prosecutors said she controlled — and sentenced to death for fraud totalling $27 billion.

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 appealed that verdict, and the court determined last week there was no basis to reduce her sentence — but said she could still escape the death penalty if she returned three quarters of the stolen assets.

Now she is appealing a verdict from a second trial in October, in which she was sentenced to life in prison for three crimes.

She was found guilty of money laundering worth $17.7 billion and illegal cross-border trafficking of cash worth $4.5 billion.

She was also found guilty of bond fraud to the tune of $1.2 billion.

The court determined that Lan was “the mastermind, committed the crime with sophisticated methods, many times, causing especially serious consequences”.

Thirty-three other defendants were also sentenced at the court in Ho Chi Minh City, and given terms ranging from two to 23 years in prison. Twenty-eight of them will appeal their sentences, state media said on Thursday.

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.

Lan owned just five percent of shares in SCB on paper, but at her trial, the court concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90 percent through family, friends and staff.

In April, a former chief inspector of the State Bank was given life in prison for accepting a five-million-dollar bribe to overlook financial problems at SCB.