Defendant Ha Van Tham asked for leniency for his subordinates.

On March 2, the fourth day of the first-instance trial of defendant Ha Van Tham and his accomplices continued with the interrogation of the defendants to clarify the act of paying interest outside the capital mobilization contract, causing a total loss of VND 1,576 billion to Oceanbank, affecting the State Bank's policy on monetary market management, and affecting the implementation of the Government's monetary policy.

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Subordinates only obey orders.

When questioned by the Trial Panel, defendant Ha Van Tham stated that the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy had not considered a number of important details to reduce the defendant's damages.

Regarding defendant Le Thi Thu Thuy, former Deputy General Director of Oceanbank and her subordinates, branch directors... defendant Ha Van Tham said that defendant Thuy was asked to withdraw money to take care of customers but did not inform what the money was withdrawn for. After that, defendant Thuy found out and spoke to defendant Tham with a rather harsh attitude about this issue, and also requested to submit documents to complete the procedures.

However, according to defendant Tham, paying for customer care is a violation, but if not done, the shop will "go out of business". Defendant Tham presented to the Court: If Ms. Thuy does not do it, her status will be revoked. What the defendant did was almost like deceiving her subordinates because the defendant also told Ms. Thuy that this amount would be refunded. The defendant's actions are criminal, but they are the defendant's crimes. Ms. Thuy and her subordinates are not guilty, in the circumstances they had to do so.

Defendant Tham said that in the difficult market situation, the State Bank announced a ceiling on interest rates, if they did not spend on customer care, they would not meet their targets and would be dismissed. That was the situation of many bank officials at that time. According to the defendant, from defendant Le Thi Thu Thuy to branch officials, they were under a lot of pressure because they were assigned to spend. During the confession process, Ha Van Tham accepted responsibility for himself and asked to consider the role of subordinate officials.

Regarding the customer care expenses, defendant Ha Van Tham stated that he accepted Nguyen Xuan Son's decision. He was not under any pressure to spend money on customer care, but because Tham felt that the situation at that time required him to do so.

Former PVN Chief Accountant denies receiving money from Oceanbank

On the afternoon of March 2, the trial of Ha Van Tham and his accomplices moved to the interrogation of the act of "Intentionally violating the State's regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences". The indictment clearly stated: From 2011 to 2014, although Nguyen Xuan Son, former General Director of Oceanbank, was transferred back to the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN) to hold the position of Deputy General Director of this group, the activity of paying interest outside the contract to customers depositing money at Oceanbank was still maintained.

During this period, the defendants caused a loss of more than VND 1,576 billion. Of which, defendant Son was determined to have received a total of more than VND 544 billion in “customer care” money from Oceanbank.

At the court, defendant Nguyen Xuan Thang (Son's cousin, former Deputy Director of Oceanbank's Large Clients and Strategic Partners) stated that he had received a total of more than 240 billion VND for Nguyen Xuan Son. However, at the trial, Son did not acknowledge Thang's statement.

During the investigation, former General Director of OceanBank Nguyen Xuan Son stated that from 2009 until the day the case was discovered, Son had only received about 200 billion VND. To handle that "customer care" money, Son stated that he had transferred about 60% to Mr. Ninh Van Quynh (at that time, PVN's chief accountant). The remaining 40%, the defendant asked many people to hold for him, including Nguyen Xuan Thang (Son's cousin, former Deputy Director of Oceanbank's Large Customer and Strategic Partner Division) and Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong (former Deputy General Director of Oceanbank).

In addition to Son's testimony, during the investigation, Nguyen Xuan Thang stated that Son asked him to carry money for Mr. Ninh Van Quynh (at that time, PVN's chief accountant). However, in court, Thang denied this statement and said that he carried a bag for Mr. Ninh Van Quynh but did not know what was inside, only that it was a cloth bag. Thang also said that carrying a bag for a high-ranking leader was only to show respect.

Meanwhile, attending the trial as a person with related rights and obligations, Mr. Ninh Van Quynh denied receiving money for “customer care” from Oceanbank or from defendants Son and Thang. Mr. Quynh stated that before March 2014, he was the Chief Accountant of PVN and was then appointed Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Speaking to the Trial Panel about his relationship with defendant Son, Mr. Quynh said: “We can call it a conflict or we can call it distrust and wariness. It stems from the fact that in 2010, Mr. Son and I were both in the planning area. I was more prestigious and capable than Mr. Son, but Mr. Son was still promoted to Deputy General Director. After that, I became a subordinate and Mr. Son looked down on me.”

In court, Mr. Quynh stated that at the time when PVN organizations and individuals deposited money at Oceanbank, the highest amount was up to 11,000 billion VND. However, he never received a single penny of “customer care” money from Oceanbank or the defendant Son.

During the interrogation session on the afternoon of March 2, the Trial Council initially clarified each act of paying interest outside of the deposit contract of the group of defendants who held the positions of Directors of blocks and Directors of branches of OecanBank. At the same time, the Trial Council also focused on interrogating to clarify the role of those responsible for contributing PVN's VND800 billion capital to Oceanbank. That capital is ultimately the people's tax money.

On March 3, the court continued to question the defendants about the act of "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences".

According to VNA