
Hanoi (VNA) – Prison sentences ranging from 4-9years have been proposed for two ex-leaders of the Vietnam-Russia oil and gasjoint venture Vietsovpetro for “abusing position and power to appropriateassets”.
The punishments were proposed at thefirst-instance trial held by the Hanoi People’s Court on March 21.
Accordingly, the Supreme People’s Procuracysuggested a sentence of 8-9 years in prison for Vo Quang Huy (born in 1961,former Chief Accountant of Vietsovpetro) and 4-5 years in prison for Tu ThanhNghia (born in 1962, former General Director of Vietsovpetro).
The procuracy noted that Nghia admitted to receivinga total of over 2.1 billion VND (90,700 USD) in extra-interest that was notstated in Vietsovpetro’s deposit contracts at the Ocean Commercial Joint StockBank (OceanBank). The money had been given to him by then General Director ofOceanBank Nguyen Minh Thu on three occassions.
Meanwhile, Huy said he had received over 4.1billion VND in extra-interest in five installments. However, the procuracyargued that based on the investigation’s findings, there is sufficient basisproving that the actual money he had received from Thu was 7.9 billion VND.
Vietsovpetro’s contracts with OceanBank were inline with the direction of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group(PetroVietnam) – which represents the Vietnamese Government in contributing 51percent (or 765 million USD) of Vietsovpetro’s charter capital – regarding prioritisingfinancial services of OceanBank, to which PetroVietnam contributed 20 percentof the charter capital.
The procuracy said the defendants’ violationswere particularly dangerous for society, directly infringing legal regulationson economic management and activities of a state-owned firm, and the State’sasset ownership.
The receiving of extra-interest had negativelyaffected political security and social order, stirred public concerns, andundermined people’s trust in the Party and the State, the procuracy noted,adding that the trial showed the resolve to fight crimes, especially economiccrime and corruption.
The trial is scheduled to wrap up on March 22.–VNA