Guo Jin Hua, 65, was found guilty of importing and putting into circulation fake Vietnamese money totalling some 5 billion dong (S$429, 382), said Judge Tran Ngoc Quang of the court in Tien Giang.

Her key accomplice, Vietnamese man Mai Van Truc, was sentenced to life in prison.

Thirty-five others tried and convicted in connection with the case received prison terms ranging from two to 23 years.

'This was a particularly serious scandal that was going on for a long time,' the judge said.

The fake money was made in Taiwan and brought into Vietnam via China beginning in 2002, according to Vietnamese media.

At least 55 people, including the Chinese woman, have been sentenced to die in Vietnam since the beginning of the year, according to numbers complied by AFP.

The death penalty is generally given in drug trafficking or murder cases.

Few foreigners are sentenced to die, and under international pressure, they are rarely executed. -- AFP