The General Secretariat of the Interpol yesterday issued an international search warrant for Ho Ngoc Tung, former Chief Financial Officer of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin).
Also being wanted worldwide is Giang Kim Dat, former business manager of a Vinashin subsidiary, Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company.
The international search warrant was issued at the request of Vietnamese authorities.
The two men are among the 10 defendants who have been charged with “deliberately acting against the State’s economic management regulations and causing serious consequences.”
Giang and Tung went abroad before the case involved them was prosecuted on August 4, 2010 by the Ministry of Public Security.
Tung went to Australia for medical treatment and hasn’t returned to Vietnam ever since.
To date, the investigation agency has detained 8 defendants, including Phan Thanh Binh, former chairman of the Vinashin Management Board.
During Tung’s term as director of Vinashin Finance Company, he and his deputy Trinh Thi Hau approved the disbursement of a number of loans worth about VND60 billion (US$2.9 million) sourced from the state’s international bonds.
A part of this amount was later used to fund businesses unrelated to the projects for which the loans had been granted. This led to a failure in recovering those loans.
For example, the company granted a loan of VND42.8 billion to Hoang Anh-Vinashin Company to purchase steel. Nguyen Van Tuyen and Do Dinh Con, the director and vice director of this company, have also been detained.
In July 2006, Con and Tuyen set up fake documents to record a purchase of 4,500 tons steel from Cuu Long Trade Investment Joint Stock Company and used these documents to apply for the said loan from Vinashin Finance Company.
They later used the loans to import second-hand thermoelectric plants for the Song Hong (Red River) Thermoelectricity Plant project which had not been approved by the government.
Tung was also held responsible for mortgaging Bach Dang Giang Ship, scrapped Polish vessel, to get a VND106 billion ($5.16 million) loan, which was also sourced from the state’s international bonds.
He also used VND1,000 billion ($48.26 million) worth of loans from international bond capital to acquire debts, including bad ones, of Vinashin and its subsidiaries.
In addition, Tung was also held responsible for a series of other law-breaking acts that have occurred at Vinashin in the fields of finance, accountings, investment and trade, according to the Government Inspectorate.
One was the purchase of the second-handed Cartour (Hoa Sen) ship from Italy.
The government only approved VND1,400 billion to buy the ship but Pham Thanh Binh, former Vinashin chairman, spent nearly VND1,500 billion ($72.4 million) for the purchase.
