An overview of the trial (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The People’sCourt of Hanoi on May 6 opened a trial for the case of “abusing position and power to appropriate assets” that happened at the PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP).
Thecase forms part of the second phase of a corruption case involved Ha Van Tham,former Chairman of the Board of Directors of theOcean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank), regarding the reception of extrainterest payments of OceanBank.
Three defendants in the case are Nguyen Tuan Hung, formerhead of PVEP’s Financial Department; Vu Thi Ngoc Lan, former Deputy General Directorof PVEP; and Do Van Khanh, former General Director of PVEP. They are chargedwith “abusing position and power to appropriate assets” under Article 355 ofthe 2015 Penal Code.
According to the indictment, PVEP engaged intransactions on deposits of fixed and non-fixed terms at OceanBank during2009-2014 under the direction of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group(PetroVietnam) on prioritising financial services of OceanBank, to whichPetroVietnam contributed 20 percent of the charter capital.
As the then General Director of PVEP, Khanhassigned Lan, who was then Deputy General Director in charge of finance,accounting and auditing, to approve and sign the deposit contracts withOceanBank. Meanwhile, Hung was the person drafting and submitting the contractsto Lan for approval.
Under the instruction of Ha Van Tham, thenChairman of the Board of Directors of OceanBank, on paying extra interest whichwas not stated in contracts to all clients who deposited money in the bank,then Deputy General Director of OceanBank Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong and some otherexecutives of the bank paid more than 51.8 billion VND (2.23 million USD) inextra interests to Hung.
Meanwhile, Khanh received more than 4 billionVND (172,500 USD) from Hung, and Lan received 200 million VND (8,600 USD) fromPhuong.
The trial is scheduled to last two days.-VNA
VNA
