Vietnam sells disgraced tycoon’s Hermes bags to recoup US$27 billion in damages

Vietnam has auctioned two Hermes handbags belonging to real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was convicted in the country's largest fraud case. The handbags sold for 14.21 billion dong (US$539,000) as part of an effort to recover billions in damages. Courts ordered Lan to repay US$27 billion in damages, and the government is auditing her and her affiliates' assets to recoup these losses. Lan has already repaid over 12 trillion dong to approximately 42,000 bondholders, with further payments expected. She still owes bondholders an estimated 18 trillion dong.

Two luxury Hermès Birkin bags confiscated from jailed Vietnamese businesswoman Truong My Lan have been sold at a government auction for over $535,000. The bidding for the bags, which Truong My Lan had sought to keep as "keepsakes" for her family, concluded within 30 minutes. One white Birkin bag alone sold for $440,144, with the other fetching $94,858. Truong My Lan is currently serving a life sentence for embezzling $44 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank and has been ordered to pay $27 billion in reparations. Her death sentence, handed down in April 2024, was commuted to life imprisonment in June.