Account

The Actual News

Just the Facts, from multiple news sources.

Jailed Vietnamese tycoon's Birkin bags sells for more than $550K

Jailed Vietnamese tycoon's Birkin bags sells for more than $550K

Summary

Two luxury Hermès Birkin bags owned by jailed Vietnamese businesswoman Truong My Lan were sold at a government auction for over $535,000. Truong My Lan is serving a life sentence for embezzling billions from a Vietnamese bank, and the auction was part of efforts to recover assets linked to her crimes.

Key Facts

  • Truong My Lan was sentenced to death in April 2024 for embezzling about $44 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank but her sentence was changed to life imprisonment after Vietnam abolished the death penalty for some crimes.
  • She secretly controlled the bank and took out large loans using shell companies over 10 years.
  • Two confiscated Hermès Birkin bags sold quickly at auction, fetching $440,144 and $94,858.
  • One bag was decorated with rhinestones and sold for nearly seven times its starting price.
  • The auction included 1,200 seized assets being sold by the Ho Chi Minh City Asset Auction Service Center.
  • Birkin bags are highly valued luxury items, considered rare and collectible, often seen as investments.
  • A previous Birkin bag set a record by selling for €8.6 million ($10.1 million) in 2025 at Sotheby’s Paris.
  • Truong My Lan had wanted to keep the bags for her children as keepsakes before they were seized.
Read the Full Article

This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.