Police investigation authority has recently requested Ocean Bank to freeze Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC) accounts until receiving official clearance.

On December 31, Ocean Bank received written notice from the Police Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security requesting the bank to freeze OGC’s accounts. On January 5, Ocean Bank has officially made an announcement public citing that all OGC accounts will be frozen until the bank receives clearance from the authority.

OGC has lately issued a written document to the State Securities Commission of Vietnam on the matter.

Earlier on, Ha Van Tham, former chairman at OGC and Ocean Bank was prosecuted and detained for violating regulations on credit lending activities.

OGC representatives have refused to comment on the issue.

According to the third quarter financial report last year, OGC had bank accounts of over VND407 billion ($19.38 million) deposited at Ocean Bank, on the total of VND550 billion ($26.19 million) of cash and cash equivalents item in the financial report. OGC also borrowed nearly VND655 billion ($31.19 million), accounting for 22 per cent of its total long and short-term debts. OGC is currently one of the biggest shareholders at Ocean Bank with 20 per cent ownership.

Immediately after Tham’s arrest, OGC shareholders put OGC shares into mortgage sale to recover debts and collateral at banks. In particular, Ha Bao Co., Ltd., Ha Van Tham’s private company, reluctantly sold over 48 million OGC shares at Ocean Bank’s request to manage collateral. Other big shareholders such as Thanh Dong Commercial Investment and Construction Company and Song Da Investment and Construction Company have also sold more than eight million OGC shares.

Closing the trading session on January 7, OGC share has gone down to VND7,100 per share from VND10,900 per share.