Court postpones Dong A Bank appeal due to absence of defendants

Phan Van Anh Vu (blue shirt), former chairman of Da Nang-based Bac Nam 79 Construction Joint-Stock Co, at the first-instance trial on losses incurred by DAB, held last year. (Source: VNA)

The court postponed the trial because of the absence of many defendants.

Tran Phuong Binh and other defendants were prosecuted last year by the Supreme People’s Procuracy on charges of “abusing power to appropriate assets”, “intentionally violating regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences” and showing “lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences”.

Last November, the HCM City People’s Court sentenced Binh, former general director and vice chairman of Dong A Bank’s (DAB) management board, to life in jail on the charges of “abusing power to appropriate assets”, and to 20 years in prison for “intentionally violating regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences”.

Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu Nhom), former chairman of the Da Nang-based Bac Nam 79 Construction Joint-Stock Company, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for “abusing power to appropriate assets”.

Nguyen Thi Kim Xuyen, former deputy general director of DAB, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for “abusing power to appropriate assets” and to 18 years in jail for “intentionally violating regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences”. On the two charges, Xuyen’s total prison sentence will be 30 years.

Another 23 defendants received sentences ranging from two years to 17 years, including probation for some.

After the end of the first-instance trial, the defendants appealed and asked for relief.

However, most defendants were absent at the appeals trial that opened on April 22 in HCM City.

The appeals trial date will be announced later, according to the HCM City People’s Court.

Investigators discovered that Binh, who was also chairman of DAB’s credit council, owned 10.25 percent of the bank’s charter capital, and his family members held a further 7.7 percent.

He was also in charge of the bank’s budget and investment division at the time, they said.

According to the indictment, Binh directed all activities of funding and investment at DAB and abused his power to appropriate property, causing a loss of 3.6 trillion VND (155.14 million USD).

Binh was charged with “abusing power to appropriate property” for directing DAB officials to spend 1.16 trillion VND to acquire the bank’s shares.

He also changed 294 billion VND to 13.9 million USD without proper documentation to later use for personal purposes, and used an additional 309 billion VND for personal purposes.

Binh was also charged with “intentionally violating regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences” for his directions to spend 467 billion VND on interest payments, 85 billion VND on loan settlements, and 49 billion VND for personal purposes.

He also illegally directed spending in gold and foreign currency, causing a loss of 1.6 trillion VND.

The investigators concluded that Binh caused a loss of 200 billion VND to DAB while raising the bank’s charter capital from 5 trillion VND to 6 trillion VND.