The seven defendants were charged with intentionallyviolating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequencesand abusing positions and powers to misappropriate State assets, causing lossesof 800 billion VND (35.2 million USD) to PetroVietnam and its shareholders.
Around 20 lawyers, 10 witnesses, one entity and 7individuals concerned will attend the 10-day trial, including on weekend.
Besides Thang, the other six defendants are former DeputyGeneral Director of PetroVietnam Nguyen Xuan Son; former chief accountant andformer head of the department of finance, accounting and auditing of PetroVietnamNinh Van Quynh; along with four former members of the PetroVietnam MemberCouncil, namely Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, and PhanDinh Duc.
According to the indictment, Dinh La Thang signed a capitalcontribution agreement No. 6934 dated September 18, 2008 with Ha Van Tham(former Chairman of the Board of Directors of OceanBank) despite the bank'spoor performance and without approval from PetroVietnam’s board.
He also signed resolutions to contribute and supplement capitalto Ocean Bank without the Prime Minister’s approval, as well as failed tofollow the requirements of the Ministry of Finance on ensuring all necessaryconditions on capital contribution.
In addition, Thang infringed clause 2 of Article 55 of theLaw on Credit Institutions, which stipulates that an institutional shareholdermay not own more than 15 percent of the charter capital of a credit institution,except in some cases, when he continued to let PetroVietnam maintain a 20percent stake in Ocean Bank after the law took effect on January 1, 2011.
His violations enabled Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem,Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son and Ninh Van Quynh to continue with illegalcapital contributions of 100 billion VND (4.4 million USD) to Ocean Bank.
As a result, PetroVietnam lost 800 billion VND after OceanBank fell into the red and was acquired by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) atzero VND.-VNA