Today Mr. Dinh La Thang appeared in court for the second time.

This morning (Monday, March 19), the Hanoi People's Court opened the first instance trial of the case causing damage of 800 billion VND at the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN), expected to last until March 29.

Seven people were tried for the crime of intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences (Article 165 of the 1999 Penal Code), including: Dinh La Thang (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVN), Nguyen Xuan Son (former Deputy General Director of PVN), Ninh Van Quynh (former Deputy General Director of PVN), Nguyen Xuan Thang (63 years old, former member of the Board of Members of PVN), Nguyen Thanh Liem (63 years old, former member of the Board of Members of PVN), Vu Khanh Truong (64 years old, former member of the Board of Members of PVN), Phan Dinh Duc (58 years old, former member of the Board of Members of PVN).

Mr. Quynh was additionally prosecuted for the crime of Abusing power and position to appropriate property (Article 280 of the 1999 Penal Code).

Mr. Dinh La Thang invitedfive defense lawyers, Nguyen Xuan Son has four lawyers, Ninh Van Quynh has two lawyers...The presiding judge is Judge Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.

Mr. Dinh La Thang may face 30 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Mr. Dinh La Thang signed the Agreement for PVN to contribute capital to Oceanbank but did not go through the Board of Directors.

The prosecution agency said that Mr. Thang decided to contribute 800 billion VND of capital from PVN while knowing clearly the weak capacity of Oceanbank; signed and issued Resolutions to implement capital contributions and additional capital contributions without the consent of the Prime Minister. He also did not comply with the request of the Ministry of Finance to ensure the conditions for capital contribution.

On January 1, 2011, the Law on Credit Institutions (which has come into effect) stipulates: “A shareholder that is an organization shall not own more than 15% of the charter capital of a credit institution…”. However, in his role as Chairman of the Board of Members, Mr. Dinh La Thang did not divest PVN’s capital at Oceanbank to ensure that the charter capital ownership ratio did not exceed 15%. He also continued to sign the decision to assign Ms. Vu Thi Thanh Huong as the representative of 20% of PVN’s capital contribution at Oceanbank.

According to the indictment, this action violated the provisions of Clause 2, Article 55 of the Law on Credit Institutions 2010, creating conditions for the defendants Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son, and Ninh Van Quynh to continue to illegally contribute VND100 billion to Oceanbank.

The consequence according to the indictment is that the entire 800 billion of PVN was lost when Oceanbank lost its business, lost its equity and the State Bank had to buy it back for 0 VND.

The prosecution agency also concluded that Mr. Thang was the person who decided on the policy and directed the implementation. As the head of PVN, he was responsible for preserving PVN's capital, so he was primarily responsible for the loss of 800 billion VND contributed to Oceanbank.

During the investigation, Mr. Thang complied with the decisions of the prosecution agency. During the prosecution phase, the defendant accepted responsibility before the law as the head of PVN Group and asked for leniency from the law.

In this trial, Mr. Thang and the defendants Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Nguyen Xuan Thang, and Phan Dinh Duc were brought to trial under Clause 3, Article 165 of the 1999 Penal Code. The maximum sentence is up to 20 years in prison.

According to the provisions on the total punishment at trial of the 1999 Penal Code as well as the 2015 Penal Code, the maximum prison sentence that a person must receive is not more than 30 years in prison. Therefore, although he was sentenced to the highest sentence in this case, combined with the sentence of the case tried in January (13 years in prison), the maximum sentence to be received will be 30 years in prison.

Former PVN chief accountant returns 20 billion VND in gifts

In this case, in addition to Mr. Dinh La Thang's violations, another notable point is Mr. Ninh Van Quynh's receipt of gifts worth up to 20 billion VND.

According to the indictment, on September 18, 2008, PVN signed a cooperation agreement with Oceanbank and became a shareholder and strategic partner holding 20% ​​of the bank's charter capital. At that time, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son was introduced by PVN to be a member of the Board of Directors and General Director of Oceanbank from January 1, 2009 to November 15, 2010. Mr. Ninh Van Quynh held the position of Chief Accountant, concurrently Head of the Finance, Accounting and Auditing Department of PVN.

Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Oceanbank Ha Van Tham and Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son discussed raising capital for Oceanbank. Mr. Son asked Mr. Tham to pay for customer care with interest rates outside the contract in order to raise capital from PVN. With Mr. Tham's consent, Mr. Son paid large sums of money to take care of customers many times.

According to the prosecution, one of the people who Mr. Son took the most care of was Mr. Ninh Van Quynh. The amount of money Mr. Quynh received from Mr. Son was divided into many times and amounted to 20 billion.

>>Punishment of 22 defendants in the case of 'Mr. Dinh La Thang'

At the first instance trial of Ha Van Tham's case held at the end of 2017, as well as his testimony at the investigation agency, Mr. Son stated that he gave Mr. Quynh about 30-40 billion VND to thank PVN leaders for directing member units in the Group to use services and deposit money at Oceanbank.

In the period of 2010-2014, when Mr. Son became Deputy General Director of PVN, Mr. Ha Van Tham continued to ask Mr. Son to receive money to pay interest outside the deposit contract for the group of oil and gas customers depositing money at Oceanbank. Mr. Son remembers that on average, about every 45 days, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Deputy Director of the Large Customer and Strategic Partner Division of Oceanbank (Mr. Son's cousin) received money from Oceanbank and gave it to him, about 5 billion VND, to give back to Mr. Quynh.

However, at the trial in September 2017, Mr. Ninh Van Quynh affirmed that he only received 20 billion from Mr. Son. He used the money tosavings, buying a house, buying a car, investing in stocks, personal expenses, vacations, holidays, diplomacy...

He then asked the investigation agency to allow him and his family to return all the money he had embezzled. In addition to the 20 billion VND paid in assets such as house, car, and savings book, Mr. Quynh also returned more than 300 million VND in cash, which was said to be saved from salary and bonus.