Financial 'tycoons' entangled in legal trouble

A series of big bank bosses have had to appear in court since 2014, dragging hundreds of bank officials into legal trouble.

Former financial tycoons such as Tram Be, Nguyen Duc Kien, Ha Van Tham, and Pham Cong Danh once manipulated banks, distorted the financial market, and caused damage to banks and the national economy.

Nguyen Duc Kien - ACB

Chief among these is Nguyen Duc Kien (Bau Kien), former Vice President of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB). In November 2014, the Supreme People's Court opened an appeal hearing after receiving an appeal claiming injustice.

During the interrogation, Nguyen Duc Kien claimed that he was wronged when the court of first instance sentenced him to 30 years in prison for four crimes: "Illegal business", "Tax evasion", "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences".

After many days of debate, the representative of the Supreme People's Procuracy maintained the conviction, affirming that the conviction of Nguyen Duc Kien was well-founded. Therefore, the Supreme People's Court sentenced the former Vice President of ACB to 30 years in prison and a fine of 75 billion VND.

Pham Cong Danh - VNCB

Pham Cong Danh, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB), former Chairman of Thien Thanh Group was prosecuted and arrested in July 2014.

At the end of phase 1 of the case, Pham Cong Danh was proposed to be prosecuted for causing more than 9,000 billion VND in damage to VNCB. Of which, 63 billion VND was for falsifying corebanking records; 581 billion VND was for falsifying headquarters rental records, 5,190 billion VND was for withdrawing money without the account holder's signature, 300 billion VND was for lending without records, 903 billion VND was for entrusting bond investment, 2,096 billion VND was for establishing fake companies, and falsifying collateral assets to borrow capital.

On June 9, 2016, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Pham Cong Danh to 30 years in prison for the crimes of intentionally violating state regulations, causing losses to VNCB of more than VND 7,000 billion, and violating regulations on lending in the operations of credit institutions, causing losses to VNCB of more than VND 2,000 billion. At the appeal hearing held in January 2017, the panel of judges upheld the sentences for the defendants.

In addition to the charges he has already faced, Pham Cong Danh is also facing charges in two other cases. According to the supplementary investigation conclusion of the case of Ha Van Tham and his accomplices at OceanBank, Pham Cong Danh discussed and agreed with

Ha Van Tham in the purchase and transfer of Dai Tin Bank and agreed that Tham would support Danh in the process of receiving and operating Dai Tin Bank. Due to the above discussion, Pham Cong Danh directed his junior Tran Van Binh to mortgage 250 billion VND of the unreal charter capital of Trung Dung Company and borrow the assets that did not meet the legal conditions of Ms. Hua Thi Phan's group to borrow 500 billion VND from OceanBank, which was not in accordance with the law. Up to now, it has not been recovered, causing damage to OceanBank. The above behavior of Pham Cong Danh helped Ha Van Tham commit the crime of "Violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions" according to Article 179 of the Penal Code.

In addition, Pham Cong Danh was also the mastermind in creating 6 fake documents to borrow 1,800 billion VND at Sacombank in 2013. Therefore, Pham Cong Danh will have to appear in court in several other major cases.

Ha Van Tham - OceanBank

In late February and early March 2017, after more than 2 years of detention, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first instance trial of Ha Van Tham and his accomplices in the case at OceanBank. However, the Hanoi People's Court later had to postpone the trial due to many points that needed to be clarified by the Investigation Police Agency.

On May 24, 2017, the Investigation Police Agency - Ministry of Public Security issued a supplementary investigation conclusion. Ha Van Tham is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the legal representative of OceanBank, and understands the regulations of the State Bank on credit activities and foreign exchange trading.

However, in order to have money to pay Nguyen Xuan Son, former General Director of OceanBank, at Son's request, Ha Van Tham had the following actions: discussing and agreeing on the policy of "collecting fees" from customers borrowing capital through BSC Company; directing Nguyen Van Hoan (Deputy General Director of OceanBank) to "collect fees" from customers borrowing capital and repo fees for assets/real estate; using Hoang Thi Hong Tu (Secretary) as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the legal representative of BSC Company to sign fake service contracts; directing the appointment of Pham Hoang Giang, Deputy Head of OceanBank's Legal Department, as General Director of BSC Company to establish and sign service contracts; assigning Le Thi Minh Nguyet (Financial Director) to monitor the "fee collection" and payment of money to Son, leading to a loss of 69 billion VND to OceanBank and customers.

Ha Van Tham and Nguyen Xuan Son are the co-conspirators, organizers and must be held responsible for the damages to OceanBank and its customers. Ha Van Tham's actions violate the crime of "Abusing position and power to appropriate property" as stipulated in Article 280 of the Penal Code. Ha Van Tham must be held responsible for the damages of 69 billion VND.

Previously, according to the conclusion of the SBV Appraisal Team sent to the Investigation Police Agency, from 2011-2014, OceanBank violated the accounting and statistical regime and the ceiling on mobilization interest rates of the SBV. OceanBank did not have documents to prove the disbursements of VND988.342 billion and VND331 billion in advances and has not yet refunded. OceanBank has set aside 100% of the provision for this refund, totaling VND1,319.49 billion.

Tram Be - Sacombank

On August 1, the Department of Investigation Police on Economic Crimes and Corruption (C46), Ministry of Public Security, issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Tram Be (58 years old), former Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Credit Council of Sacombank, for 4 months.

Mr. Tram Be was prosecuted and temporarily detained in connection with the Pham Cong Danh case. Specifically, Mr. Tram Be assisted Pham Cong Danh and his accomplices in sending money to Sacombank to guarantee and pay debts on behalf of 6 companies established by Mr. Danh on loan documents at Sacombank, causing losses to VNCB of more than 1,800 billion VND.

According to the records, Pham Cong Danh and his accomplices colluded to use VNCB's money deposited through Sacombank as collateral to pay off debts on behalf of 6 companies established and operated by Mr. Danh under the names of Sacombank loan applications, causing losses to VNCB of more than VND1,800 billion.

According to Infonet