4 ex-VietinBank bankers prosecuted in $48.2 mln lending scandal

The Supreme People’s Procuracy has prosecuted four ex-bankers at a VietinBank branch in Hanoi and 13 others for their offenses in an economic case in which the branch wrongly gave loans totaling  US$48.2 million, causing a loss of over $19 million several years ago.

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The four former banking officers include Tran Kim Hoa, 53, former deputy director of the VietinBank’s Dong Anh District branch, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, 40, ex-head of the branch’s Bac Thang Long transaction office, and two branch’s credit officers: Dinh Cong Khanh, 34, and Ho Thi Kim Ngan, 26.

Most prominent among the other 13 defendants is Nguyen Thanh Hung, 44, director of Thuy Tien Construction One-Member Co Ltd, who colluced with many other defendants to make false documents to get a huge amount of loans from the branch.

The four ex-bankers have been charged violating regulations on lending at credit institutions, while the other 13 defendants have been indicted with counterfeiting materials of agencies and organizations, and swindling to appropriate property.

According to the indictment issued by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, from March 2008 to October 2011, Hung and his accomplices used fake documents and the legal status of 16 companies to sign 149 credit contracts with the branch to get loans totaling over VND1,016 billion (US$48.2 million).

On February 2, 2012, when the illegal lending was uncovered, Hung and his accomplices failed to pay a total debt of VND412 billion ($19.56 million), including about VND30 billion worth of interest.

Tran Kim Hoa, former deputy director of the branch, knew that all the 16 companies were unqualified for loans, but still directed Thuy to guide Hung’s employees to forge sales contracts, business plan, financial statements and other documents to make these companies eligible for loans, according to the indictment.

Hoa then approved the lending and during the disbursement of the loans, the above credit officers (Khanh and Ngan) did not examine how the loans have been used by the borrowers, the indictment said.