VietNamNet Bridge – Tran Bac Ha, former chairman of Viet Nam Bank for Investment and Development’s (BIDV) board of directors had yet to appear in court for the trial yesterday of Pham Cong Danh, ex-chairman of Viet Nam Construction Bank’s (VNCB) board of directors, who has been charged with “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences”.

Tran Bac Ha had been requested to appear in court to clarify information related to a VND4.7 trillion (US$214 million) loan that VNCB and Pham Cong Danh’s 12 companies borrowed from BIDV. — Photo vnexpress.net

Tran Bac Ha had been requested to appear in court to clarify information related to a VND4.7 trillion (US$214 million) loan that VNCB and Pham Cong Danh’s 12 companies borrowed from BIDV.

However, Ha has had liver cancer since 2012 and on January 7 travelled to Singapore for health care under an arrangement with a doctor. Ha’s stay in Singapore has been confirmed.

A representative of the Supreme People’s Procuracy asked the court to bring Ha to the court as soon as possible after he returns to Vietnam.

Yesterday, the trial focused on a VND1.7 trillion ($77 million) loan from TPBank taken out by Pham Cong Danh’s 11 companies and the money used to buy shares of the Thien Thanh Group and Trung Dung Company.

According to an indictment issued by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Phan Thanh Mai, ex-general director of VNCB, and Nguyen Viet Ha, ex-general director of Loc Viet Fund Management Company, agreed that Viet Ha could use Danh’s companies as collateral to borrow money from TPBank and use the money to buy shares of the Thien Thanh Group and Trung Dung Company.

VNCB guaranteed the loan with a deposit in TPBank. After the 11 companies could not prove the proper usage of the loan, TPBank took back VNCB’s deposit before the loan’s due date for payments.

At the trial, Phan Thanh Mai admitted that he had followed Pham Cong Danh’s instructions and had signed all the deposit contracts with TPBank.

He also admitted that he had known it was wrong because it was an indirect way to provide funds from VNCB for the Thien Thanh Group.

Mai also said that he did not know what Pham Cong Danh did with the money from TPBank.

The corruption case involves the largest amount of money of any previous corruption case in the country.

This is the third trial against Danh, who is serving 30 years in jail for wrongdoings at OceanBank and at VNCB that incurred losses of more than VND9 trillion (US$405 million).

The 51-year-old man, who is ex-chairman of the VNCB Board of Directors and ex-general director of the Thien Thanh Group, and other defendants are accused of using VNCB’s money as collateral to take out loans totalling more than VND6.1 trillion ($274 million) at TPBank, Sacombank and BIDV.

The borrowed money, however, was for Danh’s personal use, and he did not repay it.

The court trial is scheduled to run until February 7.  

Source: VNS