Ninh Van Quynh received a 'bribe' of 180 billion from Nguyen Xuan Son?

On the morning of June 21, the High People's Court in Hanoi continued its third working day of the appeal trial of Dinh La Thang and six defendants in the case of PVN losing 800 billion VND when investing in Ocean Bank. Witnesses Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien, Le Hai Ninh and Bui Ha Chau (all from PVN Office) continued to present.

At court, Ms. Tien provided a copy of the Draft Resolution on Capital Increase of Oceanbank. According to the female witness, this is the document she provided to her colleague Chau to photocopy and send to the members of the Board of Directors. This evidence was immediately transferred by the Panel of Judges to the representative of the People's Procuracy for review.

Next, the panel of judges requested to question the legal representative of PVN. However, the representative was not present, so the court requested to summon him for further work.

In addition, the panel also proposed to summon female witness Lien Huong - who was the secretary of the Board of Directors in 2008. Ms. Huong was the person who participated in receiving and transferring internal documents of PVN to members of the Board of Directors.

Immediately after that, the panel questioned defendant Ninh Van Quynh (former Chief Accountant of PVN). According to the first instance verdict, defendant Quynh acted as an accomplice with Dinh La Thang in the crime of Intentional Violation when PVN contributed capital for the third time to Oceanbank.

In addition, the 60-year-old defendant was also accused of taking advantage of his position and power to appropriate the interest that Nguyen Xuan Son gave to take care of PVN leaders.

The court of first instance sentenced defendant Quynh to 23 years in prison for two crimes. He also had to pay 100 billion VND in compensation.

Responding to the appeal court, Ninh Van Quynh stated that during the third capital contribution (100 billion VND), he received the documents and reported to Nguyen Xuan Son (former Deputy General Director of PVN), submitting them to the secretary to report to the Board of Directors to issue Resolution 1466.

"In the document the defendant signed, the defendant presented the capital source and requested the Board of Directors to allow PVN to contribute capital to Oceanbank," Quynh stated.

"In your capacity as a corporate finance inspector, did you discover that PVN's investment in Oceanbank was a violation?". In response to the panel's question, defendant Quynh said he did not discover any violations.

Continuing to answer, Ninh Van Quynh explained that due to his own professional capacity, he did not discover any violations, so he did not have any reports or recommendations to his superiors about the capital contribution.

"The defendant is the Chief Accountant, meaning the person responsible for supervising the financial affairs of the enterprise. Does the defendant know this regulation?", presiding judge Nguyen Vinh Quang asked. However, Mr. Quynh said he did not know.

"It depends on your awareness and knowledge. If you go into the water, you should know how to swim, otherwise it's very dangerous," the chairman said.

Next, answering the question of the jury whether he knew about Oceanbank distributing money to PVN every year, Ninh Van Quynh replied that he knew and said that it was dividends. Former Chief Accountant of PVN stated that the group received 244 billion VND in dividends from 2009-2013.

"Did the defendant receive money from Nguyen Xuan Son?", in response to the judge's question, Quynh hesitated and then said he received a total of 20 billion VND. Of which, 4 billion VND was "carried" by Nguyen Xuan Son (then General Director of Oceanbank).

The 60-year-old defendant claimed that it was the money Nguyen Xuan Son gave him to facilitate Oceanbank's operations. However, the presiding judge quickly interrupted and explained that, according to the first instance verdict of the case that occurred at Ocean Bank, it was the bank's money to take care of customers who deposited money there, also known as "extra interest".

At the appeal court, defendant Quynh reaffirmed that after receiving 20 billion VND from Nguyen Xuan Son, he did not pay it to PVN but "pocketed" it to spend on things like buying apartments, investing in stocks, buying cars, sending his children to study abroad, and paying for his subordinates to travel.

"Up to now, the defendant has returned everything to the investigation agency and his family has also paid an additional 200 million VND to remedy the consequences of the case under trial," Ninh Van Quynh said.

Also this morning, the panel of judges questioned defendant Nguyen Xuan Son. With a rather calm attitude, the former Deputy General Director of PVN testified and affirmed that the money he gave to defendant Ninh Van Quynh was for customer care.

Son explained that during the period when PVN contributed capital to Oceanbank, the bank implemented a policy of paying interest outside to improve the relationship between the bank and customers.

“The defendant gave Mr. Quynh 180 billion VND, in which Nguyen Xuan Thang helped give it twice, 5 billion VND each time,” defendant Son affirmed and admitted that there were no documents to record the money giving.

According to the appeal of Nguyen Xuan Son, this defendant requested the appellate court to consider and force Ninh Van Quynh to pay back 180 billion VND, not just 20 billion VND as stated by the former Chief Accountant of PVN.

The afternoon of the previous day, the panel of judges had adjourned the trial early. A lawyer leaving the courtroom said, according to the representative of the Procuracy, the reason the prosecution requested the adjournment was to clarify some new details that had appeared during the interrogation later that morning.

According to the first instance verdict, because it was not allowed to establish Hong Viet Bank, PVN switched to investing in buying shares of Oceanbank. Implementing Dinh La Thang's policy, the defendants Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Phan Dinh Duc, Nguyen Thanh Liem and Ninh Van Quynh contributed capital of 800 billion VND to this bank three times.

However, due to poor capacity, Oceanbank operated inefficiently, with negative equity. PVN's 800 billion was completely lost when Oceanbank was forced to be purchased by the State Bank at 0 dong.

The court of first instance determined that the reason PVN lost 800 billion VND was due to the illegal acts of defendant Thang and his accomplices. In addition, defendant Ninh Van Quynh also took advantage of his position and power to appropriate property.

Therefore, the court ordered Mr. Thang to compensate PVN 600 billion VND, Ninh Van Quynh 100 billion VND, Vu Khanh Truong 40 billion VND. The defendants Nguyen Xuan Son, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem and Phan Dinh Duc each compensated 15 billion VND.

• Ocean Bank (Ocen Bank) was established in 1993 with the initial name of Hai Hung Rural Bank. On January 9, 2007, it was approved to change its name and convert its operating model to Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank. In 2015, after the Bank's Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ha Van Tham, was arrested, the bank was acquired by the State Bank at a price of 0 VND/share, converting its form to a one-member limited liability commercial bank.