VietNamNet Bridge - The Panama Papers has issued warnings about tax evasion committed by Vietnamese individuals and institutions through international transactions. 

In the Panama Papers released on May 10, 2016, the names of 189 Vietnamese individuals, 19 offshore companies and 23 intermediary companies are included. 

Some Vietnamese individuals named in the list have appeared in mass media, saying that being listed in the Panama Papers does not mean that the companies and legal representatives were related to tax evasion or money laundering.

In the Panama Papers released on May 10, 2016, the names of 189 Vietnamese individuals, 19 offshore companies and 23 intermediary companies are included.

Pham Trong Dat, Director General of the Government Inspectorate’s Anti-corruption Bureau, also affirmed that persons and businesses named in the Panama Papers do not mean they violated the law. 

What has been unveiled from the Panama Papers should be considered a source of information for Vietnam’s agencies to verify.

However, analysts commented that there must be reasons for the names to be listed in the papers, and that the institutions’ and individuals’ huge assets, transactions and the cash flow remain a secret.

This is not the first time that Vietnamese tycoons are related to bribery cases and unclear transactions overseas.

In early 2015, ICJC’s (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) documents showed that more than 100,000 clients from 200 countries opened accounts at HSBC Switzerland branch in the years from 1988 to 2007.

These include 26 clients related to Vietnam who had total assets of $37.5 million, while the richest had assets worth $12.2 million.

The information then sparked curiosity among the public. Experts said that Vietnamese laws do not allow Vietnamese individuals to deposit money at foreign banks, and it is very difficult to make international transactions under the very strict regulations on foreign currency management.

Recently, Giang Kim Dat, former chief accountant of Vinashin (the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group), has been found embezzling $19 million and has fled abroad. 

During his five years in Singapore, Dat spent a lot of money and bought an apartment worth $3.6 million. Prior to that, Dat bought an apartment in Sentosa, Singapore.

It is unknown how Dat could transfer such a big amount of money abroad and buy assets under his name. 

Lam Ngoc Khuan, the former director of Phuong Nam Seafood Company, fled abroad some years ago because his company fell into insolvency. 

While he could not pay tens of billions of dong in Vietnam, he could transfer big money abroad with which he could buy houses in the US.

A report of Coldwell Banker Singapore showed that 3.2 percent of the real estate transactions in Singapore are made by Vietnamese.

M. Ha