The court found she had secretly controlled Saigon Commercial Bank, the country’s fifth biggest lender, and taken out loans and cash over more than 10 years through a web of shell companies, amounting to a total of $44 billion (£34.5 billion).

Of that prosecutors say $27 billion was misappropriated, and $12 billion was judged to have been embezzled, the most serious financial crime for which she was sentenced to death.

However, the law in Vietnam states that if she can pay back 75% of what she took, her sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment.

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“The total value of her holdings actually exceeds the required compensation amount,” lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told the BBC.

“However, these require time and effort to sell, as many of the assets are real estate and take time to liquidate.