The People’s Court of Hanoi on September 29 sentenced Nguyen Xuan Son, former Director General of Ocean Bank, to death and Ha Van Tham, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, to life imprisonment for wrongdoings in State management, property appropriation, credit operation, and power abuse. 

The People’s Court of Hanoi on September 29 sentenced Nguyen Xuan Son, former Director General of Ocean Bank, to death

Son was given 17 years in prisons for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences”, life sentence for “abusing position and power to appropriate property”, and death penalty for “embezzlement”. The overall punishment for Son is death penalty.

Whereas, Tham was sentenced 19 years in prison on charges of “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences”, 18 years in prison for “violating lending regulations of credit institutions”, life imprisonment for “embezzlement”, and 20 years in prison for “abusing position and power to appropriate property”. The overall sentence for Tham is life in prison.

Both Nguyen Minh Thu and Nguyen Van Hoan, former Deputy Director Generals of the bank, were sentenced to 22 years in prison for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences” and “abusing position and power to appropriate property”. 

Dozens of other banking officials were given suspension sentences ranging from 18 months to 36 months while others in the mass trial of 51 officials and bankers got sentences from 3 years to 17 years in jail, including Pham Cong Danh (14 years) and Hua Thi Phan (17 years).

According to the court’s verdict, when working as Ocean Bank’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tham and his accomplices, who are other former leaders and employees of the bank, committed a series of violations of credit regulations, causing losses for the bank and seriously affecting the State’s monetary policies. Their violations resulted in losses of nearly 2 trillion VND (88 million USD) for Ocean Bank.

Son was found to coordinate with Tham to charge customers additional fees, triggering a loss of nearly 69 billion VND (3.02 million USD) for the bank and customers. 

Meanwhile, Thu instructed the bank’s branches to pay interest rates outside the mobilising deposit contracts, causing losses of 1.576 trillion VND (69 million USD).

VNA