On April 18, the court considered the appeal of former Oceanbank chairman Ha Van Tham.
Mr. Tham said he did not commit the crimes of embezzlement and abuse of power, but asked the appeal court to consider reducing his sentence if he was "guilty".
On April 18, the High People's Court in Hanoi is scheduled to open an appeal hearing to review the case of violations at Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Oceanbank), following the appeal of Mr. Ha Van Tham (former chairman of Oceanbank) and 30 defendants.
The chairman of the appeal court is Mr. Ngo Hong Phuc. Former Oceanbank chairman Ha Van Tham invited four defense lawyers; former general director Nguyen Xuan Son had two lawyers...
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Former Oceanbank Chairman Ha Van Tham (right) at the first instance trial. |
On September 29, 2017, after more than a month of trial, Hanoi People's Court determined tFrom 2010 to 2014, implementing Mr. Tham's policy, the bank spent more than 1,500 billion VND paying interest outside the contract to hundreds of individuals and organizations depositing money.Of these, former general director Nguyen Xuan Son was accused of appropriating more than 246 billion VND; embezzling more than 49 billion VND; and abusing his position and power to appropriate 197 billion VND.
The former CEO of Oceanbank was also accused of abusing his position to embezzle 69 billion VND from BSC - the backdoor company of Ha Van Tham. BSC was said to have no business activities but was opened to use its legal status to sign service contracts with Oceanbank's customers to illegally collect fees. The main purpose was to collect more money to pay Nguyen Xuan Son to take care of customers.
In November 2012, Mr. Tham directed his deputy Nguyen Van Hoan to lend Mr. Pham Cong Danh (Chairman of Thien Thanh Group) 500 billion VND through Trung Dung Company while there was no collateral, and the customer used the capital for the wrong purpose. This act was accused of violating the State Bank's regulations on lending regulations, causing Oceanbank to lose more than 500 billion VND (both principal and interest).
Mr. Ha Van Tham was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hanoi People's Court for the crimes of Embezzlement of property (Article 278, Penal Code 1999), Abuse of position and power to appropriate property (Article 280 of the Penal Code 1999); Violation of regulations on lending in the operations of credit institutions (Article 179 of the Penal Code 1999) and Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences (Article 165 of the Penal Code 1999).
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son was sentenced to death under Articles 278, 280, 165 of the 1999 Penal Code. Former Oceanbank General Director Nguyen Minh Thu was sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison under Articles 165 and 280. Former Oceanbank Deputy General Director Nguyen Van Hoan was sentenced to 22 years in prison under Articles 280 and 179.
Under the same group of crimes under Article 165, former deputy general director Le Thi Thu Thuy was sentenced to 6 years in prison, Nguyen Thi Nga (former chief accountant) to 3 years and 6 months in prison, Nguyen Hoai Nam (former director of capital resources) to 3 years and 6 months in prison...
Mr. Pham Cong Danh was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Ms. Hua Thi Phan was sentenced to 17 years in prison, both for crimes under Article 179. The remaining 42 defendants were sentenced from 24 months of non-custodial reform to 4 years in prison...
After the first instance verdict, 31/51 defendants appealed.
