HCM City (VNA) – Pham Cong Danh,ex-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB),has been given a 20-year prison term for “deliberately violating Stateregulations on economic management, causing severe consequences” at the bank.

The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City announcedthe verdict on August 6.

Given his 30-year prison term announced in thefirst phase of the case, Danh (who is also Chairman of the Board of Members andGeneral Director of Thien Thanh Group) will have to serve 30 years in prison(the highest level for a fixed prison sentence).

The 45 other defendants received from two yearsof suspended sentence to 30 years of imprisonment for the same charge.

While Tram Be (former Vice Chairman of SaigonThuong Tin Commercial JSB, also known as Sacombank) will have to spend fouryears in prison, Phan Huy Khang (former General Director of Sacombank) will beimprisoned for three years. Phan Thanh Mai (former General Director of VNCB)received a 10-year prison term (the total sentence including the first-phasepenalty is 30 years).

In the second phase, they are accused of causingeconomic losses of more than 6.1 trillion VND (261 million USD) to VNCB. Thefirst phase involved losses of 9 trillion VND (385.2 million USD).

The trial opened in January 2018, however onFebruary 7, the court decided to return the dossier of the case and requestfurther investigation. The first-instance trial was resumed on July 24.

The judging council said although Pham Cong Danhand his accomplices lacked financial capacity, he still received the TrustBank, which he later renamed the VNCB, from Hua Thi Phan – former senioradvisor of the management board of Trust Bank, and her accessories.

To maintain the bank’s liquidity, look afterclients and raise charter capital, Danh and his accessories committed a seriesof wrongdoings, causing losses of over 15 trillion VND (642 million USD) toVNCB.

In the second phase of the case, Danh used 29companies established in his or other people’s names to borrow money fromSacombank, TPBank, and BIDV. Following that, he deposited VNCB money in thesebanks as guarantees for the 29 companies’ loans, causing over 6.1 trillion VND inlosses to VNCB when these companies were unable to pay off debts.

The court did not support the viewpoint ofrecovering the over 6.1 trillion VND from Sacombank, TPBank, and BIDV, sayingthat it is the evidence of the case and not the money VNCB deposited at thesebanks to guarantee the 29 companies’ loans. The court said this matches thecentral bank’s verification that Sacombank, TPBank, and BIDV did not sufferfrom losses in this case.

It decided that the over 6.1 trillion VND mustbe recovered from many sources that Danh used for after borrowing the money,including over 2.3 trillion VND from VNCB, now the Construction Bank.

It added that the Construction Bank will have toreturn 4.5 trillion VND to Pham Cong Danh as he previously used this money to raiseVNCB’s charter capital but was rejected by the central bank. 

Because over 2.3 trillion VND will be recoveredfrom the Construction Bank as the evidence, this bank only has to return over2.1 trillion VND to Danh. However, this sum will be kept to ensure Danh’sobservance of the verdict, the judging council said.–VNA