The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has suspended Chairman of the OceanCommercial Joint Stock Bank's Board of Directors Ha Van Tham for seriousviolations of Vietnam's laws.
In a report released on itswebsite on October 24, SBV said that the violations were discoveredduring its inspection of the legal status and credit quality of creditinstitutions, which is part of the project on restructuring creditinstitutions, as approved by the Politburo and the Government.
The case will not affect Ocean Bank's operations, said SBV.
Tham was arrested and his office was searched under a decision issuedby the Investigation Police Agency under the Ministry of Public Securityon October 21 and approved by the Supreme People’s Procuracy on October24.
A day ago, members of the Ocean Bank's Board of Directorsagreed to dismiss Tham from his position as the board's chairman.
Nguyen Minh Thu, the bank's general director and member of the Boardof Directors, was elected to replace Tham. She will no longer be thebank's general director.
Deputy General Director Nguyen Mai Huong became the managing deputy general director of the bank.
The SBV has been closely coordinating with relevant agencies to investigate violations at the Ocean Bank.
Tham, 42, founded the Ocean Group and is currently the ninth richest man in the Vietnamese stock market.
According to the Ocean Bank's website, Tham has a doctorate inbusiness administration from Paramount University of Technology in theUnited States.
He was Deputy Chairman of the Hai HungCommercial Joint Stock Bank's Management Board in 2003 and 2004, andthen became its chairman. The bank is now known as the Dai DuongCommercial Joint Stock Bank.
From 2007, Tham also held theposition of Chairman at the Dai Duong Service and Hotel Joint StockCompany and the Dai Duong Communication Joint Stock Company.
He was a member of the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company's (Vinamilk) Management Board, but left the post in 2013.-VNA
