Hanoi (VNA) – The High-level People’sCourt in Hanoi on May 4 upheld the charges and sentences for three formerleaders of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank) ruled at thefirst-instance trial for their wrongdoings at the bank.

Accordingly, the court upheld the verdict on HaVan Tham, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of OceanBank, who wassentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence includes 19 years in prison for“deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing severeconsequences”, 18 years in prison for “breaching lending regulations of creditinstitutions”, life imprisonment for “property embezzlement”, and 20 years in prisonfor “abusing positions and power to appropriate assets.”

The death penalty for Nguyen Xuan Son, formerDirector General of OceanBank, was also upheld. He received 17 years in prisonfor “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causingsevere consequences”, death punishment for “property embezzlement”, and lifeimprisonment for “abusing positions and power to appropriate assets.”

Within seven days since the appeal trialannounced its verdict, Son has the right to submit a plea for clemency to theState President.

Considering Son’s sincere confession, hisfamily’s compensation for consequences at the Vietnam Oil and Gas Groupresulted by his “property embezzlement”, and some other factors, the jury proposedthe Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, the Prosecutor General of theSupreme People’s Procuracy and the State President to consider converting Son’spunishment from death penalty to life imprisonment as regulated in Point c,Clause 3 and Clause 4 of Article 40 in the 2015 Penal Code.

The jury also took into consideration theunstable financial market when Tham committed irregularities, his sincereconfession and other mitigatory factors. It asked authorised agencies to apply mitigatoryconditions to reduce Tham’s punishment from life imprisonment to fixed-termimprisonment.

The 22-year imprisonment was also kept forformer General Director of OceanBank Nguyen Minh Thu. She will be imprisonedfor nine years for “abusing positions and power to appropriate assets” and 13years for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic managementcausing severe consequences.”

Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Hoan, former DeputyGeneral Director of OceanBank, will be sentenced to 20 years in prison (downtwo years from the first-instance trial’s verdict) for “abusing positions andpower to appropriate assets” and “breaching lending regulations of creditinstitutions.”

Six other defendants accused of “deliberatelyviolating State regulations on economic management causing severe consequences”also received reductions in their imprisonment sentences.

During the investigation and at the trial,Nguyen Thi Thu Ba (former director of the retail client division) and Do DaiKhoi Trang (former director of the individual client division) said theirwrongdoings had been made under the direction of Deputy General Director TranThanh Quang. Therefore, jury asked the investigation police agency of theMinistry of Public Security to launch criminal proceedings against Quang toprobe into his involvement.

According to the court’s verdict, when workingas Chairman of the Board of Directors of OceanBank, Tham and his accomplicescommitted a series of violations of credit regulations, causing losses for thebank and seriously affecting the State’s monetary policy. Their violationsresulted in losses of nearly 2 trillion VND (equivalent to 87.7 million USD atpresent) for OceanBank.

Son was found to coordinate with Tham to chargecustomers additional fees, triggering a loss of nearly 69 billion VND (3.02 millionUSD) for the bank and customers. Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Thu instructed thebank’s branches to pay interest rates outside the mobilising deposit contracts,causing losses of 1.576 trillion VND (69 million USD).-VNA