The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Nguyen Thai Luyen, chairman of Alibaba Real Estate JSC, to life in prison on Thursday for fraudulently appropriating property.
Vo Thi Thanh Mai, Luyen's wife, got a 20-year prison sentence on the same charge and a 12-year prison sentence for money laundering.
Other defendants were sentenced to 10-27 years behind bars, except for Huynh Kim Thang who got a suspended three-year sentence as he is undergoing cancer treatment.
The judge ordered Luyen and Mai to jointly pay compensation to their victims of VND2.4 trillion ($101.6 million).
The court determined they had been more than 4,500 victims, but so far only around 3,900 people have registered compensationt claims.
In May 2016, Luyen, who has a bachelor's degree in law, established Alibaba Real Estate JSC in HCMC with charter capital of VND1 billion ($42,340).
Two years later, the company raised its charter capital to VND1.6 trillion ($67.74 million), but the figure only rose on paper.
Luyen also set up 22 legal entities, with owners on paper being his relatives and employees, of which 12 companies were investors of 58 bogus real estate projects in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Thuan provinces. He also made fraudulent advertisements to sell properties to thousands of people.
Alibaba promised to buy back the plots of land at a higher price, ensuring a profit of 30% which it said would gradually increase over time.