A Vietnamese appeal court on Thursday slashed a former property and aviation tycoon's jail sentence in a $146 million fraud and stock market manipulation case from 21 years to seven.
Trinh Van Quyet, who owned the FLC empire of luxury resorts, golf courses and budget carrier Bamboo Airways, was given the lengthy jail term in August after a trial.
Quyet and 49 others including his two sisters and four stock exchange officials were punished for fraud, stock market manipulation, abuse of power and publishing incorrect stock market information.
After a 10-day hearing in Hanoi, the appeal court dropped Quyet's three-year term for market manipulation and cut his 18-year sentence for fraud to seven years.
The appeal court gave several other defendants reduced jail terms on Thursday.
Its ruling comes after the tycoon's family paid nearly $96 million in compensation for the losses.
According to the indictment in August, Quyet set up several stock market brokerages and registered dozens of family members, ostensibly to trade shares.
Police said while orders to buy shares were placed in hundreds of trading sessions -- pushing up the value of the stock -- they were cancelled before being matched.
The court said there were 25,000 victims of the fraud as Quyet illegally pocketed more than $146 million between 2017 and 2022.
The appeal court said it had received 5,000 letters asking for a reduction of punishment for Quyet "from the victims, FLC staff, some associations and local authorities".
The case is part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam's business elite in recent years.
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