Former Vinashin chairman sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Two defendants, former chairman of the board of directors and general director of Vinashin, were sentenced today by the Hanoi People's Court to 13 and 7 years in prison, respectively.
After nearly three days of trial and deliberation, on the afternoon of June 12, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Nguyen Ngoc Su (former chairman of the Vinashin Board of Members) to 13 years in prison, Truong Van Tuyen (former general director of Vinashin) to 7 years in prison, Pham Thanh Son (former deputy general director of Vinashin) to 6 years in prison, and Tran Duc Chinh (former chief accountant of Vinashin) to 17 years in prison, all for the crime of...Abuse of position and authority to misappropriate assets..
Defendants Son and Chinh were banned from holding office for 3 years after serving their sentences. Considering the defendants' good character and many achievements in their work; Chinh and Su's sincere confessions; and Tuyen and Son's partial admissions, the court applied mitigating circumstances to sentence them below the maximum penalty.
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Defendant Nguyen Ngoc Su. |
In his final statement, Mr. Su expressed deep regret for not carefully considering the decision to deposit money into Oceanbank. He apologized to the Party, the State, and the Government for their trust in appointing him as chairman of the Vinashin group. "I have betrayed their trust," he said, and hoped the court would consider mitigating his sentence.
During more than two days of questioning, the defendants' testimonies revealed that from 2010 to June 2014, Vinashin had executed over 2,300 fixed-term deposit contracts with Oceanbank totaling nearly 104,000 billion VND and nearly 182 million USD. The interest earned under the contracts was nearly 1,100 billion VND and nearly 30,000 USD.
Defendant Tran Duc Chinh was assigned to receive and manage the aforementioned extra interest income (not accounted for) for expenditure and use in general Vinashin activities.
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Former Vinashin chairman Truong Van Tuyen in his final statement. |
Of the total amount received from Oceanbank, Mr. Su appropriated 8 billion VND and spent 385 million VND for personal use; Tuyen 3.5 billion VND; Son 1.2 billion VND; and Chinh appropriated 10 billion VND and spent it. The remaining amount of over 60 billion VND could not be accounted for, so the court ordered the defendants to be responsible for compensating the damages.
The court decided to transfer the amount of money that the defendants had repaid (Su 8.3 billion VND, Tuyen 3.5 billion VND, Son 1.2 billion VND, etc.) to Oceanbank to deduct from the civil compensation of former Oceanbank chairman Ha Van Tham.
