Giang Kim Dat (front, second from right) and his father Giang Van Hien (front, first from left) at the trial (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Court opened afirst instance trial on February 16 on the asset embezzlement at theState-owned Vinashin Ocean Shipping Co. Ltd (Vinashinlines), which is awaitingbankruptcy.
This is one of the major corruption andeconomic-rule-violating cases that were ordered to be brought to trial as soonas possible by the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption.
Three defendants are charged with assetembezzlement as regulated in Article 278 of the Penal Code, who are Tran VanLiem (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, bornin 1950, is charged with money laundering under Article 251 of the Penal Code.
According to the indictment of the People’sProcuracy, from July 2006 to March 2007, Liem signed contracts to buy threeships – the Vinashin Summer, Vinashin Island and Vinashin Phoenix - andassigned Dat to negotiate the purchase.
During negotiations, Dat reached an agreementwith intermediary firm Marvin Shipping Ltd on buying Vinashin Summer fromPanama at 6.25 million USD, and Vinashinlines would receive 2 percent of thetotal value of this vessel purchase and sale contract. The intermediary kept 10percent of the 2-percent sum while the remaining worth more than 1.9 billionVND (over 83,400 USD) – was transferred to an account owned by Giang Van Hien.
The ship Vinashin Island was purchased at 5.95million USD from Croatia. Dat also made a deal with Marvin Shipping Ltd to get3.75 percent of the contract value and paid this firm 10 percent of thecommission. More than 3 billion VND (131,800 USD) was transferred to Hien’saccount after the transaction.
In the contract to purchase Vinashin Phoenixfrom Greece at 21.55 million USD, Dat took 2 percent of the contract value. MarvinShipping Ltd transferred nearly 6.5 billion VND (285,600 USD) to his father’saccount.
Hien received a total of almost 11.5 billion VND(505,300 USD) in illegal money from the vessel purchase and sale contracts ofVinashinlines.
From May 2006 to June 2008, via intermediarycompanies, Liem, Dat and Khuong also negotiated with ship owners to wronglydeclare the hire charges in the leases of nine vessels, misappropriating 249billion VND (over 10.9 million USD).
The indictment said Liem and his accomplicesabused their position and power to appropriate more than 260 billion VND (11.4million USD) of Vinashinlines. Of that sum, Liem took 3.1 billion VND (136,200USD), Dat over 255 billion VND (11.2 million USD), and Khuong 110,000 USD.
The People’s Procuracy also found that Hienwithdrew the money transferred to his account and gave it to his son, Dat. Healso purchased 40 properties and traded 13 cars in the name of himself andrelatives.
The first instance trial is set to last fourdays. -VNA
VNA
