Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death by a court in Ho Chi Minh City in the country’s largest financial fraud case ever, state media Vietnam Net said.
Assuming we’re okay with the death penalty at all, no. As the other user said, this isn’t just “fraud”. The reason I suspect you are feeling this way is because it is hard to directly see the impact of their actions as violence against people in the same way as a murderer. But with crimes like this, which are typically given a monetary fine if that in other countries, there are potentially millions of people harmed by their actions. Their health, finances, personal and social relationships, employment, etc all may be impacted by “white collar” crimes. It can easily be argued that they deserve worse punishment (under a punishment-centric system) than murderers because of the scale of their actions. People just don’t make that connection because they’re not literally pulling a trigger.
I read the article and I know her fraud was extensive but - anyone else feel like the death penalty for fraud is a bit over the top?
Assuming we’re okay with the death penalty at all, no. As the other user said, this isn’t just “fraud”. The reason I suspect you are feeling this way is because it is hard to directly see the impact of their actions as violence against people in the same way as a murderer. But with crimes like this, which are typically given a monetary fine if that in other countries, there are potentially millions of people harmed by their actions. Their health, finances, personal and social relationships, employment, etc all may be impacted by “white collar” crimes. It can easily be argued that they deserve worse punishment (under a punishment-centric system) than murderers because of the scale of their actions. People just don’t make that connection because they’re not literally pulling a trigger.