The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on December 16 opened a trial for violators of regulations on lending in credit organisations’ activity and fraudulence at the branch 7 of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank Branch 7).

This is one of the eight key cases asked to be brought to court before the 12th National Party Congress by the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention.

Pham Van Cu, former director of the Agribank Branch 7, Kieu Dinh Tho, former head of the Agribank Branch 7’s Business Plan Division and Do Thu Ha, former deputy head of the division, were prosecuted for “breaching regulations on lending in credit organisations’ activity”.

Pham Trinh Thang, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mai Khoi Limited Company, Duong Thi Kim Luyen, Thang’s wife and former director of the Mai Khoi Company, and four accomplices were prosecuted for “swindling to appropriate assets”.

According the indictment, from 2009-2011, Thang and Luyen falsified lending documents, charter capital figure and financial report in order to raise post-tax profit, and created a phony business plan to borrow capital from the bank.

Thang and his wife did not use the borrowing money for business purposes but instead bought many assets, shares and agricultural land for housing projects.

The indictment accused Thang of appropriating 170 billion VND (7.6 million USD) from the Agribank Branch 7.

Meanwhile, Cu ordered Tho and Ha to handle the borrowing documents of the Mai Khoi Company even when required papers had not been verified.

The defendants caused a total loss of more than 600 billion VND (26.7 million USD) to the Agribank Branch 7.

VNA