HANOI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- People's Court in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Thursday opened a first instance trial for a case of embezzlement of assets in the state-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin) Ocean Shipping Company (Vinashinlines).
The first three defendants who are accused of "embezzlement of assets" include former general director of Vinashinlines Tran Van Liem (born in 1955), former Vinashinlines accountant chief Tran Van Khuong (born in 1951) and former acting Vinashinlines sales manager Giang Kim Dat (born in 1980).
The final defendant called Giang Van Hien (born in 1950), father of Dat, faced the charge of "money laundering," reported the state-run news agency VNA.
All the first three defendants are under custody while Giang Van Hien is free on bail.
According to the indictment, from July 2006 to March 2007, Liem signed contracts to buy three ships namely Vinashin Summer, Vinashin Island and Vinashin Phoenix as well as assigned Dat to deal with the negotiations.
During the negotiation process, Dat agreed with a broker called Marvin Shipping LTD that when buying Vinashin Sumer worth 6.25 million U.S. dollars, Vinashinlines will receive 2 percent of total contract value. Among the two-percent figure, the broker kept 10 percent while the rest of 90 percent worth over 1.9 billion Vietnamese dong (85,200 U.S. dollars) was transferred to Hien's banking account.
Similarly, the Vinashin Island was purchased at 5.95 million U.S. dollars, Dat received a "commission" worth over 3 billion Vietnamese dong (135,000 U.S. dollars) via his father's account.
For Vinashin Phoenix that was sold at 21.55 million U.S. dollars, Dat received nearly 6.5 billion Vietnamese dong (291,500 U.S. dollars).
In total, Hien received nearly 11.5 billion Vietnamese dong (515,700 U.S. dollars) of illegal money from the contracts of purchasing Vinashinlines ships.
In addition, from May 2006 to June 2008, via brokers, Liem, Dat and Khuong compromised with ship owners to increase hiring fees of nine ships to confiscate 249 billion Vietnamese dong (11.17 million U.S. dollars) from Vinashinlines.
The indictment said during buying ships, exploiting and trading ships, Liem and his accomplices abused their positions and powers to confiscate over 260 billion Vietnamese dong (11.66 million U.S. dollars) from Vinashinlines. Among which, Liem got 3.1 billion Vietnamese dong (139,000 U.S. dollars), Dat with over 255 billion Vietnamese dong (11.43 million U.S. dollars) and Khuong with over 110,000 U.S. dollars.
Hanoi's Procuracy confirmed that after receiving money in his account, Hien withdrew it and gave to his son. Hien also bought a total of 40 real estate properties, bought and sold 13 cars under his own name and names of other relatives.
The trial is scheduled to last for four days, reported VNA.
