Two Birkin Bags Belonging to Vietnamese Tycoon Sold for Over $550,000

Hanoi. Two Birkin bags belonging to a Vietnamese businesswoman serving a prison sentence have been sold for more than $550,000. The government had auctioned two bags made of crocodile skin confiscated from Truong My Lan. Both bags found new owners within 30 minutes of the auction starting.

In the auction, a white Hermès Birkin bag was sold for $440,144, while another bag was sold for $94,858. Hermès bags are very expensive. Its Birkin brand bags are among the world's most expensive handbags, with some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lan is currently serving a life sentence after being convicted of a major financial scam at a major bank in the country. The court has also ordered her to return $27 billion in compensation.

In April 2024, the court determined that Lan had withdrawn $44 billion in loans and cash through a network of shell companies for more than 10 years, secretly controlling Saigon Commercial Bank. That bank is considered the country's fifth-largest lender. At that time, she was sentenced to death. However, after Vietnam abolished the death penalty for some crimes last June, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

During the court hearing, Lan stated that she bought one of the Hermès bags from Italy and received the other as a gift from a Malaysian businesswoman. She also told the court that she wanted to keep the bags as "mementos" for her children and grandchildren.