VietNamNet Bridge - Many businessmen honored as ‘outstanding businessmen’ or ‘outstanding young faces’ have been sentenced to jail because of their offenses.

 

Nguyen Dinh Chien, who was a well-known face on national television VTV’s ‘Nguoi duong thoi’

Before his arrest, Nguyen Duc Kien, dubbed ‘Mogul Kien’, was known as the most powerful businessman in the banking sector. He held the post of chair of the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), one of Vietnam’s biggest joint stock banks. 

He was also the owner of some other finance institutions, businesses (tourism and garment), banks, and a football club. Kien was chair of the Hanoi ACB Football Club, famous for his strong statements about Vietnam’s football and the dispute relating to the TV football broadcasting copyright.

In 2011, Kien was honored by VnEconomy, a business newspaper, as ‘the businessman of the year’. 

However, just one year later, he was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in jail for his behavior of deliberately breaking the economic laws, thus causing serious consequences.

The hearing opened by the Hanoi People’s Court in 2011 caught the public’s attention because the defendant was Nguyen Dinh Chien, who was a well-known face on national television VTV’s ‘Nguoi duong thoi’ (Contemporary People) broadcast in May 2009.

Nguoi duong thoi is a talk show between VTV and Vietnamese people who have outstanding achievements in many different fields.

Chien, as the chair and CEO of Bac Ha Trade & Investment, CEO of Bacha Group Ltd Hong Kong, was prosecuted for ‘swindling businesses to appropriate their assets’ and sentenced to life in prison.

The businessman showed forged documents to prove his ‘virtual’ financial capability and borrow VND26.5 billion from Vien Duong Investment & Trade and Nguyen Trai University.

Chien was more famous than other businessmen because of his ‘special achievement’. He was four times prosecuted for the same charge, but the investigations suddenly stopped. He was brought to justice the fifth time, but he escaped the 18-year jail sentence proposed.

Most recently, Tran Thi Thuan Hoa, 33, in Thai Binh City, former director of Thuan Hoa Company, has been prosecuted for her behavior of swindling to appropriate their assets worth VND650 million.

She has been found using the state’s money allocated to fund scientific research for her private purposes. 

Only when her name appeared in local newspapers did farmers in Thai Binh province realize that Hoa was a familiar name to them. She was one of 10 ‘Vietnam’s most preeminent young faces in 2012’, called ‘8X billionaire’ (billionaire born in the 1980s).

In 2014, information about the arrest of Nguyen Ngoc Minh, director of Dai An Company, stirred up the public because people realized that Minh was among the 1,000 outstanding businessmen honored at a ceremony on the occasion of Thang Long – Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary of establishment.

Hanh Nguyen