On March 25, police arrested six banking officials from a state-owned bank located in Ca Mau Province for violating lending regulations causing huge losses.
Vietnam Development Bank's Minh Hai Branch
Six officials worked for Vietnam Development Bank’s Minh Hai Branch, including the director, Trinh Tuan Man, the head of Credit Department Huynh Quang Xuan and official in the department Tran Thi Oanh. Three other officials, who have been released on bail, include the deputy director and two deputies of the credit department.
Since 1999, the Minh Hai branch has given loans worth trillions of VND to seafood processing and exporting firms. However, many reputable firms have complained that they have not had access to the loans. Meanwhile, companies that were given loans allegedly did not qualify and many faced bankruptcy. In return, the bank is also carrying a huge amount of unrecoverable debt.
Nguyen Huu Thanh, former director of Dai Duong Food Company borrowed VND39 billion to open a new import-export company. His collateral was only VND9 billion (USD429,000) while the interest he has to paid amounts to VND16.5 billion.
The Minh Hai branch also gave 20 loans to Ngoc Sinh Seafoods, totaling VND291 billion. The loans are all overdue and this company shut down several years ago. Similarly, the Nhat Duc Company was also given 21 loans, with a total of VND176 billion, and VND81 billion in interest cannot be recovered.
All these companies gave very little in collateral compared to the size of their loans. When asked about the bank’s plan to recover the money, Phan Thanh Binh, the newly-appointed director of Minh Hai branch, simply said, “I am unable to comment on this subject.”
Đăng ký: VietNam News
