It also owed VND212 billion to the price stabilization fund.

The investigation agency under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has released its conclusion about the case at Xuyen Viet Oil and some other institutions, which includes the following charges: "violating regulations on state asset management and use, causing loss and wastefulness"; "lacking responsibility causing serious consequences"; "giving bribes and receiving bribes"; "taking advantage of position and power to influence others for personal gain".

The investigation agency found that Le Duc Tho, former Ben Tre provincial Party Committee Secretary, received a bribe of VND13 billion and gifts, which included a Patek Philippe worth VND9.8 billion and a Mercedes Benz S450 Luxury worth VND6.6 billion.

In this case, Tran Duy Dong, former director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) (before the prosecution, he was deputy director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency - Vietrade) is also facing prosecution for "receiving bribes".

In May 2024, the HCM City Tax Agency publicized a list of enterprises that had not paid May tax. Xuyen Viet Oil topped the list with an unpaid sum of VND1.74 trillion.

On July 6, 2024, at the government’s regular press conference, Major General Hoang Anh Tuyen, the MPS spokesman, said Mai Thi Hong Hanh, Director of Xuyen Viet Oil, and her accomplices illegally used money from the petroleum price stabilization fund and environmental protection tax for business and personal purposes, and established relationships and gave bribes.

The Government Inspection’s conclusion about petroleum management, issued on January 4, 2024, said Xuyen Viet Oil’s leaders gave bribes when their company’s stockholder equity fell to minus VND462 billion and incurred an estimated debt of VND1.92 trillion.

The Supreme People's Procuracy said that, regarding the violation of regulations on state asset management which caused loss and waste at Xuyen Viet Oil Company and several provinces and cities, the investigation agency during the search seized 134 savings books with a total amount of VND1.32 trillion.

How was Xuyen Viet Oil licensed?

Xuyen Viet Oil was granted a license to trade and import/export petroleum products for the first time on August 22, 2016, and it received the license again on November 19, 2021.

At the time of licensing, the company satisfied all the requirements stipulated in Article 7 of Decree 83/2014. Under the regulation, an enterprise must have at least 40 sales agents to be licensed. Xuyen Viet Oil had 49 agents. Of these, Xuyen Viet Oil directly signed contracts with 17 agents, while its subsidiary Dai Dong Xuan signed contracts with the remaining 32 agents.

According to MOIET, in order to meet the requirements on distribution systems, 37 retail agents of Dai Dong Xuan Company were admitted to its system through a parent-son company scheme. Xuyen Viet Oil contributed more than 50 percent of Dai Dong Xuan’s capital.

However, the problem was that on the day MOIT granted the license, Xuyen Viet Oil and Dai Dong Xuan signed a document cancelling the share transfer contract, and by the time of cancellation, the two sides had not implemented any rights and obligations as shown in the contract signed before.

In conclusion, MOIT’s inspection team proposed assigning the Domestic Market Department to fix the shortcomings in the appraisal and granting of the petroleum product trading license, and supervise conditions for petroleum trading.

MOIT reported that at the time of inspection, Xuyen Viet Oil had only 10 retail points and 18 sales agents. The company was fined and deprived of a petroleum trading and import/export license for 1.5 months because it had not maintained enough retail agents as required.

In 2023, MOIT once again inspected compliance with regulations on petroleum trade at Xuyen Viet Oil. 

At the time of inspection, MOIT found that Xuyen Viet Oil had 10 retail points, but three  showed expired certificates on meeting requirements for retail petroleum products, while 20 sale agent contracts signed with retailers were still valid. 

As the company could not maintain the number of retail points and satisfy the requirements, MOIT on August 11, 2023 released Decision No2081 on revoking Xuyen Viet Oil's license.

Luong Bang