Police have seized 34 houses in Vietnam and abroad that were owned by former Vinashin official Giang Kim Dat who involved in stealing nearly USD20 million.

Giang Kim Dat

The Ministry of Public Security recently identified two more houses owned by Giang Kim Dat, who was former acting sales manager at Vinashin Ocean Shipping Ltd., Co. which is a subsidiary of the state-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin). He was recently arrested after fleeing abroad several years ago.

The buildings include a 100 square-metre house in Haiphong City’s Hoang Van Thu Ward in Hong Bang District and another 250 square-metre land lot in Dong Khe Ward of Ngo Quyen District.

The houses and land lot were owned by Giang Van Hien, Dat’s father. On January 15, Hien was arrested for fencing and adding and abetting in a crime.

Dat fled abroad and was internationally wanted. He was arrested on July 7 in Singapore.

Dat was subordinate of Pham Thanh Binh, former chairman of Vinashin’s Board of Directors, and was assigned to work overseas to negotiate and buy dozens of old ships. He was paid a commission of 1% per deal.

He also earned a lot of money from hiring other old ships owned by Vinashin. He misappropriated around USD17.6 million in total.

Dat sent money to several accounts owned by Hien, his father, who used it to buy a lot of land and housing across Vietnam.

To date, the police have seized 34 land lots and houses involved in Dat’s corruption case, including two in Haiphong City, two in Hanoi, six in the southern central coastal city of Nha Trang and 24 in HCM City.

Twenty four out of such properties were valued at over VND100 billion each, excluding one luxury apartment worth $3.6 million in Singapore.

Dat also bought four luxury flats worth one million pound each in the UK. After paying just 10% of the value as deposit he rapidly sold them on for a profit. He apparently still owns two apartments in the country.

DanTri/VietNamNet