Mekong Housing Bank Chairman handed 13-year prison term

On Thursday, the HCM City People’s Court sentenced Huynh Nam Dung, former management board chairman of Mekong Housing Bank (MHB), to 13 years in prison for abusing power and causing losses to the State.

Defendants at the hearing on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Chung

Dung’s accomplices, former MHB director general Nguyen Phuoc Hoa and Mekong Housing Bank Securities Company (MHBS) former director general Lu Thi Thanh Binh, were handed over 10 and 11 year sentences, respectively, also for abusing their power.

Thirteen other defendants received three to six year prison sentences.

Before merging with the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), the MHS had charter capital of VND3.369 trillion (US$149 million), with State capital making up 91.26 per cent.

In December 2006, MHB established MHBS, with the bank contributing 60 per cent of the charter capital of the securities company.

According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2014, Dung and Hoa took advantage of their positions to transfer nearly VND5 trillion (US$220 million) from MHB to MHBS for the stated purpose of investing in Government bonds. Instead of using the money as promised, MHBS deposited over VND3.3 trillion ($145 million) into different branches of the bank to earn over VND45 billion ($2 million) in interest payments.

In addition, MHBS used more than VND1.5 trillion ($66 million) to invest in bonds, of which nearly VND1 trillion ($44 million) was used to trade MHB’s own bond investment via a middle company. This action resulted in a loss of nearly VND349 billion ($15 million) to MHB.

According to the investigation’s results, Dung earned VND460 million ($20 million) while other defendants also benefited to the tune of hundred of millions of Vietnamese dong.

The court ordered Dung and his accomplices to pay the BIDV VND349 billion.

Ex-director of bank charged with stealing millions of dollars of customer’s savings

The HCM City People’s Court on November 23 charged Le Nguyen Hung, former deputy director of Eximbank’s HCM City branch, of “defrauding to misappropriate other people’s assets” at Eximbank’s HCM City branch.

A trial on the theft of a customer’s savings at Eximbank’s HCM City branch opened in HCM City People’s Court on Thursday. — VNS File Photo

Police are continuing their search for Hung, who remains at large.

In all, Hung appropriated VND264 billion (over US$11.3 million), according to the court.

Between January 2012 and March 2017, Hung (born in 1971) forged the signature of a customer’s bank account and set up a forged account under the name Nguyen Thi Hong Le.

Chu Thi Binh, the customer at the bank whose savings were stolen, was present at the People’s Court as a person with legal rights and responsibility.

Hung forged a procuring order on Binh’s account, the court said. Binh had previously allowed Nguyen Thi Hong Le and Nguyen Dang Phong to withdraw money from 11 saving books belonging to Binh, a savings book of Phung Thi Pham, and one of Le Thi Minh Qui.

All of the savings were in accounts at the Eximbank’s HCM City branch.

Hung carried out his transactions with Eximbank’s HCM City Customer Service Department whose staff were charged by the court with irresponsibility. The staff included Cao Lan Phuong, Nguyen Thi Thi, Ho Ngoc Thuy, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram and Tran Nguyen Xuan Lan. 

After negotiations with Binh, Eximbank’s HCM City branch paid customer Chu Thi Binh VND245 billion which had been stolen from her saving books.

Source: VNS