Three officers of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank were arrested for their involvement in an alleged fraud that caused total losses of VND400 billion (USD17.63 million) from its clients.

The three including the branch’s director Tran Thi Kim Chi, controller Le Vuong Hoang and Nguyen Thi Minh Hue were arrested on September 23 in Ho Chi Minh City, police said.

The 43-year-old director and two of her staff, aged 34 and 35, fled their office on September 13 and had been hunted by the police since.

According to a report from police, in late August and early September, more than 20 customers went to OceanBank Hai Phong to withdraw money from their savings accounts, totalling USD17.63 million, but were told that their accounts were not on the bank’s database.

OceanBank officials later spoke with the affected customers and urged them to remain calm and co-operate with the investigation concerning the alleged fraud.

In a public statement, OceanBank said that it discovered numerous signs of violations in mobilising funds at the Hai Phong branch, as there were discrepancies between information on a number of savings cards and data on the lender’s core system.

The bank later tried to contact Chi, Hoang and Hue, who had been absent for days, but to no avail.

Investigations found that the fraud started in 2012.

The incident was then reported to the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bank of Vietnam.

In the meantime, OceanBank has been requested by the investigative agency to keep the relevant data unchanged and suspend all transactions on savings cards that may have been faked until further notice.

In a recent trial involving this troubled bank, OceanBank's former CEO Nguyen Xuan Son faced the death penalty while the bank's former chairman, Ha Van Tham faced a life sentence for appropriating state assets.

dtinews