Hà Văn Thắm, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank) at the trial on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội People's Court on Tuesday handed down an additional 10-year jail term to Hà Văn Thắm, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank), for “breaching accounting regulations causing serious consequences,” after his two-day trial ended.

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 for five other defendants. Of these, three of them got suspended sentences.

Thắm was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzlement, abuse of positions and powers 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 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 (US$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 Thăm’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 (US$1.7 million).

According to the jury, Thủy was also the biggest accomplice of Thắm in this case, as she directed the accounting and PR divisions to commit wrongdoings, approved payments in 44 fake contracts worth VNĐ133 billion ($5.6 million) and signed 15 others worth VNĐ60 billion ($2.5 million). Thus, she is responsible for the losses of VNĐ106 billion. — VNS