26 stand trial for multi-trillion-VND loss at DongA Bank

HCM City (VNA) – Twenty-six defendants were brought to trial in Ho Chi Minh City on November 27 for their accused involvement in the loss of over 3.6 trillion VND (153.47 million USD) at the DongA Joint Stock Commercial Bank (DAB).

Both Tran Phuong Binh (born in 1959, former General Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Chairman of the credit council of the DAB) and Tran Kim Xuyen (born in 1958, former General Director of the DAB) were prosecuted for “abusing position and power to appropriate assets” and “deliberately violating the State’s regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences”.

Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu “nhom”, born in 1975, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bac Nam 79 Construction JSC) and Pham Van Phuoc (born in 1962, former Director of the Nam Dinh Food JSC) were charged with “abusing position and power to appropriate assets”.

At the trial, held by the HCM City People’s Court, Phan Van Anh Vu confessed that aside from this name, he also had two other names and held a foreign nationality.

According to the indictment, Binh ordered other defendants to abuse position and power to appropriate nearly 2.06 trillion VND, and intentionally violate the State’s regulations on economic management, causing a loss of over 1.55 trillion VND.

The total loss surpassed 3.6 trillion VND, which was the main cause of the DAB’s accumulated loss of over 31 trillion VND on December 31, 2015, the indictment read.

In particular, Binh was accused of ordering other defendants to make false receipts under the name of him and his relatives to buy nearly 74.28 million shares of the DAB between 2007 and 2014. To make up for the money in these false receipts, he directed his subordinates to sell gold from the bank’s fund and falsify lending dossiers. 

He and his accomplices also violated regulations when paying interests higher than the permitted level to mobilise capital and do business in gold accounts, resulting in over 1.55 trillion VND in loss to the DAB.

Additionally, Binh and Vu discussed and agreed to let the latter purchase 60 million shares worth over 600 billion VND of the DAB so that Vu could become a dominating shareholder at this bank.

To do that, Vu put 220 land lots in Da Nang city as collateral to borrow 400 billion VND from the DAB. Binh ordered his subordinates to give Vu the remaining 200 billion VND after Vu signed a document recording his fake payment of 200 billion VND to the DAB.

The indictment said Vu appropriated 200 billion VND by signing this false paper and nearly 3.2 billion VND in interest on this sum of money.

So far, Vu has paid back more than 173 billion VND, while Binh has returned 4 billion VND.

This first-instance trial is scheduled to last until December 25.

This is the second trial Vu has had to stand. Earlier, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for “deliberately disclosing state secrets” by the Hanoi People’s Court, but the penalty was then reduced to eight years in an appeal trial on October 31.-VNA