Former Vietnamese bank chairman sentenced 30 years in prison

A former chairman of management board of the Vietnam Construction Bank, who along with 35 other defendants had caused the biggest-ever loss of 9,000 billion Vietnamese dong (over 400 million U.S. dollars), on Friday received a jail term of 30 years.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court handed down an 18-year imprisonment sentence on Pham Cong Danh, 51, the bank's former chairman and general director of Thien Thanh Company, for intentionally running counter to the State's economic management regulations, resulting in serious consequences.

The court also handed down a 20-year imprisonment sentence on him for violating lending regulations in operations of credit institutions.

However, the maximum imprisonment sentence, excluding life sentence, in Vietnam is 30 years. Therefore, Danh will have to spend 30 years, instead of 38 years, behind bars.

Other defendants are senior officials of the bank or its branch in Ho Chi Minh City, and junior officials and staff of the bank's partners and of Thien Thanh Company. They received suspension or jail terms ranging from 3 years to 22 years.

Among the economic loss of 9,000 billion Vietnamese dong the defendants caused to the bank between 2012 and 2014, some 6,000 billion Vietnamese dong can be retrieved, said the court.

Source : XINHUA