Former Chairman of MHB Bank gets 8 years in prison

On May 18, Mr. Dung (66 years old, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mekong Delta Housing Development Bank – MHB) was reduced from 13 to 5 years in prison by the High People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City from 13 to 5 years in prison for the crime. Abuse of positions and powers while performing official duties.

As an accomplice, Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Hoa (former General Director of MHB) was reduced from 10 to 5 years in prison; Lu Thi Thanh Binh (52 years old, former general director of MHB Securities Joint Stock Company – MHBS) reduced from 11 to 6 years in prison. The other 5 defendants were sentenced to temporary detention or suspended sentences.

According to the panel, from 2011 to 2014, Mr. Dung and Hoa approved the meeting of the Asset and Liability Management Council, agreeing on the policy for MHB Exchange to transfer nearly VND 5,000 billion to MHBS for investment cooperation. government bonds. In fact, this securities company brings term savings deposits at MHB’s branches and buys and sells government bonds of MHB itself. MHBS has used 3,357 billion term deposits at branches in the MHB system to enjoy interest with a total amount of more than 45 billion dong.

Documents in the case file and the results of the interrogation have a basis to determine that MHB leaders spent more than 1,500 billion VND to invest in bonds, used nearly 1,000 billion VND to sign investment cooperation agreements. Government bonds in MHB itself through intermediaries. This has caused a loss of 349 billion VND to MHB. In which, Mr. Dung benefits from 460 million VND, the remaining accomplices benefit from 150-930 million VND…

The first-instance court’s trial of the accused and his accomplices for the crimes as alleged is grounded. However, the consequences of the case can be remedied, the sentence imposed by the first instance court is somewhat heavy, so the appellate court reduces the defendants’ part of the penalty.

In November 2018, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court at the first instance trial also forced Mr. Dung and his accomplices to jointly compensate the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam – BIDV (which MHB merged into BIDV) nearly 300 billion VND. .. Mr. Dung then appealed complainclaiming that there is no criminal motive and no profit of 460 million dong.

At this appellate session, the former chairman of MHB maintained his view; and the lawyer said that the client’s violations did not have enough elements to constitute a crime, the damage in the case was not due to the fact that MHB transferred money by buying government bonds to MHBS but stemmed from MHBS’s business activities from 2010 and earlier; In addition, MHBS’s assets are now capable of paying all debts to BIDV, so there is no damage in the case.

Thao Mi