Former CEO of the Ocean Bank, Nguyen Xuan Son, has been given a death sentence for embezzlement, abuse of power and violating state economic management regulations in one of the country’s largest corruption cases
The family of Nguyen Xuan Son, the former CEO of the Ocean Bank, is borrowing money to repay the appropriated money in the Ocean Bank and PetroVietnam corruption case in order to avoid a death sentence.
Former CEO of the Ocean Bank, Nguyen Xuan Son, was been given a death sentence by the Hanoi People’s Court last September for embezzlement, abuse of power and violating state economic management regulations in one of the largest corruption cases.
Son was also requested to return VND67 billion (USD2.96 million) which he took to spend on presents, repay OceanBank VND199 billion for paying interest higher than the ceiling rate and compensate PetroVietnam VND49 billion which he appropriated from the group.
Son will have the legal opportunity to get the death sentence commuted to a life sentence if he volunteers to repay three-quarters of the appropriated money or at least VND37 billion (USD1.62 million). One of his lawyers, Tran Vu Hai, said Son’s family will pay VND5 billion while the rest will be borrowed from Son’s close friend, the founder of the FPT Group, Nguyen Trung Ha.
Nguyen Trung Ha, a founder of the FPT Group
However, the People’s Procuracy said they appreciated the effort but remained unmoved as they hadn’t seen a positive co-operative attitude from Nguyen Xuan Son. The People’s Procuracy still proposed the death penalty to Son.
Currently, only VND5 billion (USD219,000) has been transferred from Son’s family to the authorities.
Vo Thi Thanh Xuan, Son’s wife, said other friends were also willing to help them. She received VND3.5 billion from Son’s group of friends in two days.
When news broke that Son’s family would borrow money from the FPT founder, it immediately put Ha into the spotlight.
Ha was born in 1962 and won two scientific research awards of Lomonosov University in Russia. He loves maths, however, he didn’t become a mathematician as he pursued a career in business. He is the chairman of Thien Viet Securities JSC, owning VND230 billion (USD10 million) in shares, and invested in many technologies and media companies in Vietnam such as Galaxy Studio, Ha Lien Real Estate Company.
He is also one of the founders of ACB Bank and was the director of ACB Bank in Hanoi from 1994 to 1997.
Source: Dtinews