Đinh La Thăng, former chairman of the Member Council of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), who was involved in the OceanBank case, has appealed against his jail sentence to the Hà Nội People’s Court.— VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Đinh La Thăng, former chairman of the Member Council of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), who was involved in the OceanBank case, has appealed against his jail sentence to the Hà Nội People’s Court. 

Earlier, the court on March 29 handed down an 18-year jail sentence to Thăng, also former minister of Transport and former chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, for his role in the OceanBank case that caused losses of VNĐ800 billion (US$35.2 million) to the State budget. 
The Hà Nội People’s Court has also received appeals of five other defendants in the case two weeks after it issued the verdicts.

They included Nguyễn Xuân Sơn, former deputy general director of PetroVietnam, sentenced to 30 months in prison, Vũ Khánh Trường, a former member of the Member Council of PetroVietnam, sentenced to 5 years in jail, Nguyễn Thanh Liêm and Phan Đình Đức, also former members of the PetroVietnam Member Council, receiving non-custodial re-education periods of 20 months and 15 months, respectively and Ninh Văn Quỳnh, former chief accountant and former head of the department of finance, accounting and auditing of PetroVietnam, 23 years behind bars. 
The court also ordered the defendants to compensate VNĐ800 billion for the losses they caused to PetroVietnam.

Of the total, Thăng has to refund VNĐ600 billion ($26.4 million), Quỳnh VNĐ100 billion ($4.4 million) and Vũ Khánh Trường VNĐ40 billion ($1.76 million). Each of the four other defendants has to repay VNĐ15 billion ($660,000). 
Quỳnh, who was found abusing his position and power to misappropriate VNĐ20 billion ($880,000) from OceanBank, had previously refunded the amount. 
In 2008, after failing to establish Hồng Việt Commercial Joint Stock Bank, PetroVietnam decided to invest in OceanBank. 
From 2008 to 2011, Thăng instructed and decided on PetroVietnam’s investment in OceanBank to become a shareholder of the bank.
Under his instruction, Trường, Liêm, Đức, Sơn and Quỳnh carried out three contributions of the group’s capital totalling VNĐ800 billion to OceanBank. 
Due to OceanBank’s poor capability and violations committed by Hà Văn Thắm, former chairman of OceanBank’s Board of Directors, the bank suffered serious losses, leading to the loss of the whole VNĐ800 billion invested by PetroVietnam, then the State Bank of Vietnam was forced to buy OceanBank at zero Việt Nam đồng. — VNS