Seafood tycoon borrows more than 1,000 billion VND with fake documents

Seafood tycoon 'Tong Thien Ma' was accused of creating fake documents to withdraw more than a thousand billion VND from the Vietnam Development Bank - Can Tho Branch.

Seafood tycoon "Tong Thien Ma" in its heyday. Photo: AX

The Ministry of Public Security has just concluded the investigation and transferred the case file to the Supreme People's Procuracy to propose prosecuting Phan Ba ​​Tong (43 years old) and Tran Thi Diem (47 years old, director and chief accountant of Thien Ma Company, temporarily detained at the end of March 2016) for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

According to the investigation, in the early 2000s, from being a bartender, passionate about business, good at English, Phan Ba ​​Tong was invited by an American businessman to become an agent supplying pangasius for export. In 2005, Tong established Thien Ma Company with a charter capital of 70 billion VND, located in Tra Noc Industrial Park, Can Tho City, specializing in processing pangasius for export. The nickname Tong Thien Ma also originated from here.

After that, in addition to borrowing nearly 90 billion VND in investment credit to build the Thien Ma 3 factory, from 2008 to 2011, Phan Ba ​​Tong signed 17 export credit loan contracts with the Vietnam Development Bank - Can Tho Branch (VDB Can Tho) and disbursed nearly 1,500 billion VND to serve the production and trading of pangasius. The collateral was formed from the loan capital (processing factory, 3,360 tons of finished fish and mortgaged deposits... with a total value of more than 300 billion VND).

However, from the first loan of the export credit contract, Tong's company created fake documents (financial reports, fish trading documents) to get the loan. The borrowing of capital with fake documents and appropriation of bank money was carried out by Tong for a long time, in debt acknowledgment contracts from 2009 to 2011.

Specifically, Tong directed chief accountant Tran Thi Diem to create fake financial reports, turning business losses into profits so that the company could qualify for a loan from VDB Can Tho. In 2009 and 2010, the company lost nearly 110 and 95 billion VND, respectively, but Diem turned those losses into profits of 6.6 and 9.2 billion VND. In the first 9 months of 2011 alone, the profit was more than 2.3 billion VND... At the same time, Tong asked many relatives to sell fish in their names to create fake vouchers such as: purchasing goods, warehousing, paying money... to supplement the disbursement application.

Thien Ma 3 factory is being managed by the bank to ensure the recovery of part of the debt. Photo: Cuu Long.

According to the investigation agency, more than 1,100/1,500 billion VND of export credit that Thien Ma Company received from VDB Can Tho was disbursed from creating fake documents. Tong used the borrowed money for the wrong purpose, so he could not repay the debt to VDB. At the same time, the entire 3,360 tons of finished fish, which were collateral assets worth nearly 150 billion VND, were sold by the enterprise but the debt was not paid to the bank.

At the investigation agency, Tong confessed that since 2009, the company had encountered financial difficulties, did not have enough capital to do business and pay debts to banks, so he directed his subordinates to create fake loan applications as well as disbursement requests at VDB Can Tho.

The purpose of the loan was to serve the export of tra and basa fish. However, in 2008, when 150 billion VND was disbursed, Tong used a part for business, the rest for factory investment and repayment of debts to other banks. From 2009-2010, the disbursed money was nearly 1,000 billion VND, mainly used to repay loans due, and a part for business and company activities.

By 2011, the loans (in the form of export credit each time) of Thien Ma Company at VDB Can Tho (more than 140 billion VND) were all used to pay off due debts at this very bank...

As of the end of March 2016, Thien Ma Company's outstanding debt at VDB Can Tho was more than 470 billion VND, classified by the bank as group 5 (debt with potential loss of capital).

Regarding Mr. Luong Quang Minh - former Director of VDB Can Tho - the person who directly directed and was responsible for lending activities before the General Director of VDB for his decisions. However, Mr. Minh fell ill and died in April 2016, the investigation agency could not work, so there was not enough basis to consider criminal responsibility.

In addition, the investigation agency determined that two accountants and three VDB Can Tho officials showed signs of committing the crime of Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences. However, due to the expiration of the investigation period and insufficient time to assess the violations of these individuals. If the Supreme People's Procuracy re-evaluates and finds sufficient grounds to consider criminal responsibility for these individuals, it will have opinions for additional investigation.../.

According to VNE