I currently live in Vietnam so this is big news here, I think what makes it tougher is that she is so unlikable. She's almost certainly guilty of exactly what she was accused of and despite what she says now when she's facing the death penalty, I think her biggest regret about it is getting caught.

THAT SAID, no person deserves the death penalty and certainly not for stealing money. I also think that she's clearly a talented business woman and she could use those skills she learned embezzling to help the government crack down on corruption. Maybe there's a reason why that's not an option...

I hope she can raise the money to prevent the death penalty because Vietnam didn't deserve to have it's money stolen and she doesn't deserve to die. But if she does I don't think you're going to find many wet eyes here.

The BBC article says:

> loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44bn (£34.5bn).

So nearly 10% of GDP.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42304524

It seems like "tycoon" recently appears more often in news than near synonyms "oligarch", and "billionaire".