Former chief accountant of PetroVietnam Transportation Corporation Nguyễn Thị Kim Anh. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — Police have started criminal proceedings against former chief accountant of PetroVietnam Transportation Corporation (PVTrans) for abusing her position and power to appropriate property.

The move is related to the second phase of an investigation into the case of Hà Văn Thắm, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank) and his accomplices.

Former chief accountant Nguyễn Thị Kim Anh, who was also head of the financial department at PVTrans, was detained on Tuesday for questioning.

Police also launched legal proceedings against the case at PVTrans and OceanBank and continued investigation into the bank’s customers which are organisations and individuals who earned extra interest rates not stated in contracts.

The Hà Nội People's Court in late April this year handed down a 10-year jail term to Hà Văn Thắm for “breaching accounting regulations causing serious consequences”.

Former Deputy General Director of OceanBank Lê Thị Thu Thủy (who is spending four years behind bars in another case) got two years imprisonment for the same charge.

The court also gave prison terms of 18 to 20 months to five other defendants. Of these, three of them got suspended sentences.

Thắm was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement, abuse of position and power and violations of regulations on lending causing serious consequences at another trial.

According to the indictment, from 2010 to 2014, at the direction of Thắm, OceanBank paid more than VNĐ1.576 trillion (US$67.2 million at the current exchange rate) in extra interest rates, which were not stated in contracts, to customers depositing money at the bank. 

To cover the payments, Thắm instructed former deputy general director of OceanBank Lê Thị Thu Thủy to co-ordinate with other sections to produce fake contracts with partners inside and outside of the Ocean Group, resulting in losses of more than VNĐ106 billion ($4.5 million) for OceanBank.
As chairman of the Board of Directors, Thắm ordered leaders of OceanBank and its partners at the Ocean Group to approve and sign 44 fake contracts, causing losses for the bank.
As Thắm’s accomplices in the case were only wage-earners and did not gain any personal benefits from the wrongdoings, Thắm must bear full responsibility for compensating OceanBank to the tune of more than VNĐ41 billion ($1.7 million). — VNS