Embezzlers at State-owned Vinashinlines come to trial

Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Court opened a first instance trial on February 16 on the asset embezzlement at the State-owned Vinashin Ocean Shipping Co. Ltd (Vinashinlines), which is awaiting bankruptcy.

This is one of the major corruption and economic-rule-violating cases that were ordered to be brought to trial as soon as possible by the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption.

Three defendants are charged with asset embezzlement as regulated in Article 278 of the Penal Code, who are Tran Van Liem (born in 1955, former General Director of Vinashinlines), Tran Van Khuong (born in 1951, former Chief Accountant of Vinashinlines), and Giang Kim Dat (born in 1980, former acting head of Vinashinlines’ sales department).

Meanwhile, Dat’s father – Giang Van Hien, born in 1950, is charged with money laundering under Article 251 of the Penal Code.

According to the indictment of the People’s Procuracy, from July 2006 to March 2007, Liem signed contracts to buy three ships – the Vinashin Summer, Vinashin Island and Vinashin Phoenix - and assigned Dat to negotiate the purchase.

During negotiations, Dat reached an agreement with intermediary firm Marvin Shipping Ltd on buying Vinashin Summer from Panama at 6.25 million USD, and Vinashinlines would receive 2 percent of the total value of this vessel purchase and sale contract. The intermediary kept 10 percent of the 2-percent sum while the remaining worth more than 1.9 billion VND (over 83,400 USD) – was transferred to an account owned by Giang Van Hien.

The ship Vinashin Island was purchased at 5.95 million USD from Croatia. Dat also made a deal with Marvin Shipping Ltd to get 3.75 percent of the contract value and paid this firm 10 percent of the commission. More than 3 billion VND (131,800 USD) was transferred to Hien’s account after the transaction.

In the contract to purchase Vinashin Phoenix from Greece at 21.55 million USD, Dat took 2 percent of the contract value. Marvin Shipping Ltd transferred nearly 6.5 billion VND (285,600 USD) to his father’s account.

Hien received a total of almost 11.5 billion VND (505,300 USD) in illegal money from the vessel purchase and sale contracts of Vinashinlines.

From May 2006 to June 2008, via intermediary companies, Liem, Dat and Khuong also negotiated with ship owners to wrongly declare the hire charges in the leases of nine vessels, misappropriating 249 billion VND (over 10.9 million USD).

The indictment said Liem and his accomplices abused their position and power to appropriate more than 260 billion VND (11.4 million USD) of Vinashinlines. Of that sum, Liem took 3.1 billion VND (136,200 USD), Dat over 255 billion VND (11.2 million USD), and Khuong 110,000 USD.

The People’s Procuracy also found that Hien withdrew the money transferred to his account and gave it to his son, Dat. He also purchased 40 properties and traded 13 cars in the name of himself and relatives.

The first instance trial is set to last four days. -VNA