Hanoi (VNA) - A prison termof 10 to 12 years was proposed on April 28 for Ha Van Tham, former Chairman ofthe Board of Directors of the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank),for “breaching accounting regulations causing serious consequences”.

This is the third case involving Tham. At thisfirst-instance trial held by the Hanoi People’s Court, he and seven otheraccomplices faced the same charge of “breaching accounting regulations causingserious consequences”.

The People’s Procuracy proposed the jurysentence Tham to 10 to 12 years in prison. He was previously sentenced to lifeimprisonment at another trial.

Meanwhile, a jail term of 36 to 42 months wasproposed for former Deputy General Director of OceanBank Le Thi Thu Thuy (whois spending four years behind bars in another case), and 30 to 36 months forformer Director of the bank’s division for accounting and domestic transactionsVu Thi Thuy Duong (who was previously sentenced to 42 months in prison inanother case).

The Procuracy suggested prison terms of 18 to 30months for the five other defendants.

According to the indictment from the SupremePeople’s Procuracy, from 2010 to 2014, at the instruction of Tham, OceanBank paidmore than 1,576 billion VND (67.2 million USD at the current exchange rate) inextra interest rates, which were not stated in contracts, to customersdepositing money at the bank. 

To cover the payments, Tham instructed Thuy tocoordinate with other sections to produce fake contracts with partners insideand outside of the Ocean Group, resulting in losses of more than 106 billionVND (4.5 million USD) for OceanBank.

The Procuracy said that in this case, asChairman of the Board of Directors, Tham ordered leaders of OceanBank and itspartners at the Ocean Group to approve and sign 44 fake contracts, thus causinglosses for the bank.

It held that as Tham’s accomplices in this casewere only wage-earners and did not gain any personal benefit from thewrongdoings, Tham must bear full responsibility for compensating OceanBank tothe tune of over 41 billion VND (1.7 million USD). During the investigation, however,defendant Hoang Van Tuyen, former Chief Accountant at the Ocean Group, andrelated persons paid back more than 10 billion VND (nearly 426,200 USD), soTham must now pay the remaining 31 billion VND (1.3 million USD).

Le Thi Thu Thuy was also the largest supporter ofTham in this case, as she directed the accounting and PR divisions to commit wrongdoings,approved payments in 44 fake contracts worth 133 billion VND (5.6 million USD),and signed 15 others worth 60 billion VND (2.5 million USD). She is therefore responsiblefor the losses of 106 billion VND, according to the procuracy./.