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A Vietnamese court has upheld the death sentence for a real estate tycoon who was convicted of orchestrating a $12 billion fraud.

Let’s bring you up to speed: Earlier this year, Truong My Lan, a prominent real estate tycoon and chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings, was convicted of orchestrating Vietnam’s largest financial fraud to date. She was found guilty of embezzling $12 billion by illegally controlling Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) through a network of family, friends, and employees. The stolen funds were allegedly used to build an empire of luxurious assets, including high-end real estate developments, a shopping mall, a harbor, and housing complexes in Ho Chi Minh City. For her role in the massive scheme, which affected tens of thousands of victims and destabilized the economy, Lan was sentenced to death.

What’s going on now: In an effort to save her life, lawyers for Lan appealed her death sentence by stressing factors, including her partial repayment of the embezzled funds, her remorse, and her willingness to liquidate assets to compensate victims. They argued that her holdings, which included over 600 properties, exceeded the required repayment amount, though these assets required time to sell due to their nature. Despite these arguments, the court upheld the death sentence, stating the unprecedented scale of damage to the economy and society justified the penalty.

However, it allowed for the possibility of commuting the sentence to life imprisonment if Lan repays $9 billion, or three-quarters of the stolen sum, a condition she must meet to avoid execution. While the court did not specify a strict deadline for Lan to raise the $9 billion required to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, time is a critical factor, as execution by lethal injection could occur once all legal avenues are exhausted and the sentence is finalized.

Where things go now: Lan’s lawyers still have additional legal options, including requesting Vietnam’s president to grant amnesty or clemency, which could suspend or alter her sentence based on humanitarian grounds or new developments.