VietNamNet Bridge - Taking losses in business, wasting money and incurring trillions of dong debts, some ‘seafood kings’ in Mekong River Delta have fallen from their pinnacle of prosperity into insolvency.

Phan Ba Tong, 42, the owner of Thien Ma Seafood Company, is one of them. Well educated and fluent in English, in 2000, Tong worked for an US businessman in the field of seafood import/export.

Later, he was asked to cooperate by acting as the supplier of seafood products to the US. With stable material supply and competitive prices, he gained big orders and became prosperous.

In 2005, Tong set up Thien Ma, a seafood import/export company. The profitable business then allowed him to easily access bank loans with which he built three seafood processing factories and 12 large-scale farms with the capacity of 40,000 tons of materials a year.

Reports showed that in its golden days, the company exported $50-70 million worth of seafood products a year, creating 3,000-4,000 jobs.

As the business flourished, Tong spent money like water. He bought a Hummer H2 from the US and a Camry. He organized luxurious parties where participants were served expensive liquor, specialty food, accompanied by beautiful girls and singers.

Taking losses in business, wasting money and incurring trillions of dong debts, some ‘seafood kings’ in Mekong River Delta have fallen from their pinnacle of prosperity into insolvency.

However, Tong’s golden days finished in 2010. Thien Ma owed money right and left, while the bank loans then bore high interest rates.

In late 2012, Thien Ma was unable to pay the debt worth of VND600 billion owed to banks, partners and farmers. 

On March 31, Tong and Thien Ma’s chief accountant were arrested by the police, when the unpaid debt had reached VND700 billion.

In another case, Lam Ngoc Khuan and Phuong Nam Seafood were once very well known in the business circle. The company’s fame allowed Khuan to get big loans from banks.

In 2008-2012, Khuan told his staff to report inaccurate figures about the company’s stocks and mortgaged the stocks to borrow money from five banks. 

He committed to use the money to buy shrimp, pay workers, buy equipment and fulfill export contracts, but in fact the money was used for other purposes: it poured money into real estate projects and joined forces with Phuong Nam Company to do business, while Khuan appropriated VND52 billion.

Investigations found that in 2008-2012, Phuong Nam incurred the loss of VND996 billion, while the mortgaged assets were worth VND640 billion. Khuan and his daughter fled abroad, leaving the unpaid VND1.7 trillion debt.

When the police discovered the problems with Bianfishco, the company and its general director Pham Thi Dieu Hien, the owner of Bianfishco, could not pay the debt worth trillions of dong. 

In late 2012, Bianfishco was found as owing money to 10 banks, totaling VND1.3 trillion. VND264 billion to farmers and VND11.5 trillion in tax.


VNE