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 involving losses of 800 billion VND at the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (PVN), which is expected to last until March 29.

Seven people are on trial for 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 Directors of PVN), Nguyen Thanh Liem (63 years old, former member of the Board of Directors of PVN), Vu Khanh Truong (64 years old, former member of the Board of Directors of PVN), and Phan Dinh Duc (58 years old, former member of the Board of Directors of PVN).

Mr. Quynh was also prosecuted for the additional crime of abusing his position and authority to misappropriate property (Article 280 of the 1999 Penal Code).

Mr. Dinh La Thang extended the invitation.Of the five defense lawyers, Nguyen Xuan Son had four, and Ninh Van Quynh had two...The presiding judge is Judge Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.

Mr. Dinh La Thang could face a 30-year prison sentence.

According to the indictment, Mr. Dinh La Thang signed an agreement for PVN to contribute capital to Ocean Bank without the approval of the Board of Directors.

The prosecution alleges that Mr. Thang decided to contribute 800 billion VND of PVN's capital while fully aware of Oceanbank's weak capabilities; he signed and issued resolutions implementing the capital contributions and additional capital contributions without the Prime Minister's approval. He also failed to comply with the Ministry of Finance's requirements to ensure the conditions for capital contribution were met.

On January 1, 2011, the Law on Credit Institutions (which came into effect) stipulated: "A shareholder that is an organization may 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 stake in Oceanbank to ensure that the ownership ratio of charter capital did not exceed 15%. He also continued to sign a decision appointing Ms. Vu Thi Thanh Huong as the representative of PVN's 20% capital contribution in Oceanbank.

According to the indictment, this action violated Clause 2, Article 55 of the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions, creating conditions for the defendants Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son, and Ninh Van Quynh to continue illegally contributing 100 billion VND to Oceanbank.

According to the indictment, the consequence was that PVN lost its entire 800 billion VND when Oceanbank suffered business losses, lost its equity capital, and the State Bank of Vietnam had to compulsorily acquire it for 0 VND.

The prosecuting authorities also concluded that Mr. Thang was the one who decided on the policy and directed its implementation. As the head of PVN, he was responsible for safeguarding PVN's capital and therefore must bear primary responsibility for the 800 billion VND loss incurred from the investment in Oceanbank.

During the investigation, Mr. Thang complied with the decisions of the prosecuting authorities. During the prosecution phase, the defendant accepted legal responsibility as the head of PVN Group and requested leniency from the law.

In this trial, Mr. Thang, along with defendants Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Nguyen Xuan Thang, and Phan Dinh Duc, were tried 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 aggregation of penalties at trial in the 1999 Criminal Code as well as the 2015 Criminal Code, the maximum term of imprisonment a person can receive is no more than 30 years. Therefore, although he was sentenced to the maximum penalty in this case, combined with the penalty from the case tried in January (13 years), the maximum sentence he can receive will be 30 years.

Former PVN chief accountant returns 20 billion VND in gifts.

In this case, besides the wrongdoings of Mr. Dinh La Thang, another noteworthy point is the acceptance of gifts totaling 20 billion VND by Mr. Ninh Van Quynh.

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 Oceanbank Chairman Ha Van Tham and Nguyen Xuan Son discussed raising capital for Oceanbank. Son suggested that Tham spend money on customer care with interest rates outside of the contract to secure funding from PVN (Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation). Tham agreed, and Son repeatedly spent large sums of money on customer care.

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

>>Sentences for 22 defendants in the 'Dinh La Thang' case.

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

During the period from 2010 to 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 contract for deposit accounts of oil and gas clients at Oceanbank. Mr. Son recalled that, on average, every 45 days, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Deputy Director of the Large Clients and Strategic Partners Division of Oceanbank (Mr. Son's cousin), would receive about 5 billion VND from Oceanbank to give to Mr. Quynh.

However, at the trial in September 2017, Mr. Ninh Van Quynh asserted that he only received 20 billion VND from Mr. Son. He used the money to...Saving money, buying a house, buying a car, investing in stocks, personal expenses, vacations, holidays, diplomatic activities…

He later requested permission from the investigating agency to return all the embezzled money along with his family. In addition to the 20 billion VND returned in the form of assets such as houses, cars, and savings accounts, Mr. Quynh also returned over 300 million VND in cash, which he claimed was savings from his salary and bonuses.

Bao Ha