Dinh La Thang prosecuted for unlawful PVN capital contribution to OceanBank

The Supreme People’s Procuracy has issued an indictment for its prosecution of Dinh La Thang and six accomplices accused of causing losses of VND800 billion ($35.2 million) of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group PetroVietnam (PVN) as capital contribution to the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank).
Dinh La Thang prosecuted for unlawful PVN capital contribution to OceanBank
The Supreme People’s Procuracy has issued an indictment for its prosecution of Dinh La Thang and six accomplices accused of causing losses of VND800 billion ($35.2 million) of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group PetroVietnam (PVN) as capital contribution to the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank)
The agency tasked the Hanoi People’s Procuracy to prosecute the case.
The defendants are Dinh La Thang (former Chairman of the Member Council of PetroVietnam), Ninh Van Quynh (former chief accountant and former head of the department of finance, accounting and auditing of PVN), Nguyen Xuan Son (former Deputy General Director of PVN), and former members of the PVN Member Council, namely Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, and Phan Dinh Duc.
They were charged with “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing severe consequences” in line with clause 3 of Article 165 of the 1999 Penal Code, violating State regulations on financial management and abusing positions and powers to misappropriate State assets, causing losses of VND800 million ($35.2 million) to PVN and its shareholders.
Thằng is accused of signing a capital contribution agreement No. 6934 dated September 18, 2008 with Ha Van Tham (former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the OceanBank) despite the bank's poor performance and without approval from PVN’s board.
He also allegedly signed resolutions to contribute and supplement capital without the Prime Minister’s approval as well as not following the requirements of the Ministry of Finance to ensure all necessary conditions on capital contribution.
Thang is also accused of infringing clause 2 of Article 55 of the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions, which stipulates that an institutional shareholder may not own more than 15 percent of the charter capital of a credit institution, except in some cases.
His violations enabled other defendants, including Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Xuan Son and Ninh Van Quynh to continue with illegal capital contributions of VND100 billion ($4.4 million) to OceanBank, per the indictment.
As a result, PVN lost VND800 billion while the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) acquired loss-making OceanBank. VNS

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