‘Will Bangladesh follow Vietnam’s model against bank robbers?’
Born into a Chinese-Vietnamese family, Truong Mai Lan is one of Vietnam’s richest men. But last October, he was charged with embezzlement and sentenced to death.
Truong Mai Lan appealed against the death sentence, which was dismissed by the court on December 3. However, according to Vietnamese law, there is a possibility of commutation of the sentence if he returns three-quarters of the embezzled money.
The court said in its ruling that Truong Mai Lan’s death sentence would be converted to life imprisonment if he pays nine billion dollars. However, media reports have shown that he is struggling to collect the fine by selling his assets.
Dr. Zahid Hossain, former chief economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office and a member of the task force formed to reform the banking sector, believes that this incident in Vietnam is also instructive for Bangladesh.
“Many of the country’s big corrupt people have fled. Some have even been caught. Cases have been filed against them here. But these are not corruption cases, they are murder cases. These cases have been filed in a hurry without proper preparation.”
“It is doubtful whether these will ultimately survive the court. Based on the cases that have been filed, it is difficult to expect that they will bring any benefit. If corruption-based cases are filed in the future, where the information and data will be admissible in court, then maybe we can hope for something. If we cannot do something like what Vietnam did, we will not be able to prevent its repetition in the future.”
