Ten former Nam Việt Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Navibank) officials, who were indicted for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences”, were sentenced to seven to 13 years in jail by the HCM City People’s Court yesterday. — Photo thanhnien.vn

HCM City – Ten former Nam Việt Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Navibank) officials, who were indicted for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences”, were sentenced to seven to 13 years in jail by the HCM City People’s Court yesterday.

General director Lê Quang Trí got 13 years, three deputy general directors, Cao Kim Sơn Cương, Nguyễn Giang Nam and Nguyễn Hùng Sơn, got 12 years each.

Đoàn Đăng Luật, former chief of the capital source division, and Huỳnh Vĩnh Phát, former chief of the accounting division, were jailed for 11 years.

Trần Thanh Bình, chief of the customer relations division, was sentenced to 10 years.

Đinh Thị Đoan Trang, chief of the customer services division, Phạm Thị Thu Hiền, chief of the legal division, and Nguyễn Ngọc Oanh, chief of the risk management, each received sentences of seven years. 

The judges also decided that Navibank’s illegal actions had fetched it a profit of VNĐ24 billion ($1 million), which it had to pay the Government.

They ordered the police and People’s Procuracy to investigate some more employees at the bank’s HCM City branch and VietinBank’s Nhà Bè District branch.

According to the indictment, between November 2010 and May 2011, the credit council of Navibank, which comprised eight of the sentenced officials, sanctioned a loan of VNĐ1.54 trillion (US$67.4 million) to 14 employees for depositing in Vietinbank’s Nhà Bè branch for extra interest that was not shown in the contract. 

The extra interest that Huỳnh Thị Huyền Như, deputy chief of the risk management department of VietinBank’s HCM City branch, paid was worth more than VNĐ24 billion ($1 million), of which VNĐ15 billion was transferred to the account of Phát and VNĐ9 billion given in cash to Luật for paying back to Navibank.

Như appropriated VNĐ200 billion ($8.7 million).

The act also harmed the prestige of State banking management agencies and affected the country’s financial and monetary market in 2010-11 period, the court ruled. -- VNS