Vietnamese property tycoon and financial fraudster Truong My Lan may be spared the death penalty under Vietnam law changes.
Lan, 67, was found guilty of the nation's biggest ever financial fraud, which totalled $US12.5 billion ($A19 billion) for her personal involvement, and a total damage cost of $US27 billion (A$41 billion).
For her role in the scam she was sentenced to death, which she tried to appeal after a month-long trial.
The scam saw Lan swindle money from Saigon Commercial Bank, of which she owned just 5% of shares, but controlled more than 90% through family, friends and staff.
Tens of thousands of people invested their savings in the bank and subsequently lost the money.
Lan also faces charges in a separate US$17 billion money-laundering case, where her life imprisonment sentence was reduced to 30 years back in April.
Now, the death penalty has now been lifted for eight crimes under new Vietnamese legal reforms, which will likely see her other sentences changed or reduced.
The crimes that no longer carry the death penalty include damaging state infrastructure, the production and sale of fake medicine, spying, drug trafficking, embezzlement and taking bribes.
Those hit with the death penalty for any of these eight offences before 1 July of this year will now automatically have their sentence converted to life imprisonment by the chief judge of the Supreme People’s Court.
Lan’s lawyer Giang Hong Thanh said he had "informed Lan this morning. She is very happy.”
“If Ms Lan compensates for three quarters of the losses along with some other conditions, she will continue to be considered for a further reduction of her sentence,” Thanh told AFP.
