Hanoi court starts hearing appeal in Vinashin case

 

Hanoi (VNA) - The High-level People’s Court in Hanoi on October 10 started hearing appeals of defendants in the case related to “abusing position and power to appropriate assets” at the State-run Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin).

During the first-instance trial in June 2019, the court sentenced former Chairman of the Vinashin Council of Members Nguyen Ngoc Su to 13 years in prison, former Chief Accountant cum head of the Finance and Accounting Department Tran Duc Chinh to 17 years, former General Director Truong Van Tuyen to 7 years, and former Deputy General Director Pham Thanh Son to 6 years behind bars.

The court also requested the defendants to pay back the money they illegally appropriated.

According to the indictment, they together agreed to make fixed-term deposits at OceanBank to gain extra interest that was not stated in deposit contracts.

Investigators found that from 2010 to June 2014, Vinashin made more than 2,300 fixed-term deposit contracts involving nearly 104 trillion VND (4.52 million USD) and some 181 million USD with OceanBank.

From March 2011 to August 2014, Chinh received more than 105 billion VND in extra interest from OceanBank. As agreed by the four, Chinh was assigned to receive and manage the extra interest to use for the firm’s activities and divide up the money among them.

Su initiated the depositing, signed 12 deposit contracts and gained 8 billion VND himself. Authorised by Tuyen, Chinh also signed many deposit contracts at OceanBank and appropriated 10 billion VND, while Tuyen pocketed 3.5 billion VND and Son bagged 1.2 billion VND.

The court, held at the appeal of the Hanoi People’s Procuracy and defendants, will last till October 11 and the final verdict will be announced on October 14./.