The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy on June 27 proposed an imprisonment sentence of 4-5 years to Dang Thanh Binh, former Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) for the charge of lacking responsibility causing serious consequences at the Vietnam Construction Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VNCB).

Former SBV Deputy Governor Dang Thanh Binh at the court

Meanwhile, for other defendants tried for the same charge, the procuracy demanded a prison term of between 36 months and 42 months for Le Van Thanh, former general inspector of the SBV branch in Long An province.

Imprisonment sentences of between 30 months and 36 months was suggested for Ha Tan Phuoc, former head of the supervision group and former deputy director of the SBV branch in Long An and Pham The Tuan, former deputy head of the supervision group and former deputy director of the Vietcombank branch in HCM City.

A prison term of between 24 months and 36 months was proposed for Ngo Van Thanh, former member of the supervision group.

The defendants were exempted from civil responsibilities, as it was identified that Pham Cong Danh, former chairman of the Board of Directors of VNCB, and his accomplices misused the money.

The procuracy also asked authorised agencies to investigate the role of the SBV leaders in the bank restructuring and related individuals involved in the losses at VNCB.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court opened the first instance trial on June 25. According to the indictment, Ha Tan Phuoc, Le Van Thanh, Pham The Tuan and Ngo Van Thanh, as members of the SBV supervision group at VNCB, were assigned to supervise the operation of VNCB, including transactions worth 5 billion VND or more.

However, they failed to perform their missions, allowing Pham Cong Danh and his accomplices to withdraw money from the bank, causing serious consequences.

Meanwhile, as the person in charge of the SBV’s supervision agency, the legal department and tasked with assisting the SBV Governor in directing the reshuffle of six banks with poor performance, Dang Thanh Binh had failed to perform his duties and implement restructuring plan of Dai Tin (Trust Bank) – the predecessor of VNCB. 

Binh allowed Danh and his accomplices to join the management work and hold dominant shares at the bank, which enabled them to cause serious economic losses of over 15 trillion VND (656.2 million USD) to the bank, according to the indictment.

The trial is scheduled to run until June 29.-VNA