Investigators from the Ministry of Public Security on Monday arrested two employees of the Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) in connection to the vice director fled overseas after misappropriating VND245bn (USD10.8m) from a customer.   

Two employees of the Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank are arrested on March 26

The two employees were arrested at the Eximbank office in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The police also searched the office and seized many documents.

The employees looked shocked when being led to the police cars and on-lookers gathered nearby.

The Ministry of Public Security has issued wanted notice for Le Nguyen Hung, former Deputy Director of the bank's Ho Chi Minh City branch.

According to the police investigation, Chu Thi Binh, a businesswoman in seafood, has made major deposits at the branch since 2007. This gave her VIP status, which meant she did not have to visit the bank every time she wanted to check her accounts, but this also opened up loopholes.

Hung paid multiple visits to Binh’s house to provide updates on her accounts, and she trusted him completely. Only after he left the bank in 2017 did she check her accounts again and found that had lost VND245bn in her account. Binh filed complaints to Eximbank and reported to theft to the police.

A policeman takes a box containing documents from the office for the investigation

Police said Hung had been stealing her money since at least 2014 using forged papers.

Bank executives said Hung had worked at the bank for more than 20 years without scandal. He raised little suspicion despite the fact that he usually handled Binh’s papers on his own, they said.

Binh has asked the bank to reimburse her, but she has been asked to wait.

“Once a court decides that Eximbank is responsible for returning the money, we will do it immediately,” the bank’s CEO, Le Van Quyet said. “We really want to resolve this quickly and save us from bad publicity. But without a trial, it will be hard for us to explain to our shareholders about paying compensation.”

Quyet explained that all the papers Hung used to make fraudulent transactions bore Ms. Binh’s actual signature. The case should therefore be carefully investigated and Eximbank will follow any ruling given by the court, he said.

The case is still under investigation.

Dtinews/VN Economic Times