Former PVTEX Chairman sentenced to 28 years in prison

Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Court on August 31 announced prison sentences between eight and 28 years for four defendants involved in wrongdoings at the PetroVietnam Petrochemical and Textile Fiber JSC (PVTEX).

Tran Trung Chi Hieu (born in 1963, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVTEX) was given 13-year imprisonment for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences”, and another 15 years for “accepting bribes”. The total penalty is 28 years in prison.

Do Van Hong (born in 1967, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Kinh Bac Petroleum Construction and Investment JSC, or PVC.KBC for short) also received a sentence of 13 years behind bars. The jail terms for Dao Ngo Hoang (born in 1978, former head of the trade-contract division of PVTEX) and Vu Phuong Nam (born in 1979, former chief accountant of PVTEX) are nine and eight years, respectively. The three defendants were also found guilty of “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences”.

Aside from the prison sentences, Hong also has to return 19.2 billion VND (over 822,200 USD) to PVTEX, while Hieu has to pay 3 billion VND (nearly 128,500 USD) to the State budget.

The court said Hieu had borne the main responsibility for all activities of PVTEX. While directing the company’s implementation of a housing project for its employees, he violated investment and construction regulations, selected an incapable and inexperienced contractor, agreed to change the approved design of the project, and let the contractor build attached houses instead of apartments for employees.

Hieu was found to have intentionally violated the State’s regulations on advancing money in construction contracts, approved and directed his subordinates to illegally advance 20 billion VND (nearly 856,500 USD), and not organised the monitoring and management of the use of the advanced money.

He was also guilty of abusing position and power and, through former General Director of PVTEX Vu Dinh Duy, forcing Hong to bribe him with 3 billion VND.

The court said in these irregularities, although Hieu was Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVTEX and held the most responsibility, he was only an active accomplice of Duy. Duy, who has fled authorities and is being hunted by police, must bear the main responsibility for the wrongdoings.

Meanwhile, when Do Van Hong received the advance of 20 billion VND, he used the money for unapproved purposes and did not continue carrying out the construction contract, leading to the project’s dilapidation and a loss of over 19.4 billion VND to the State. Therefore, Hong must bear the main responsibility for this loss, the judging council said.

Dao Ngo Hoang and Vu Phuong Nam were in charge of giving proposals and making decisions on specialist issues assigned to them. They knew that advancing the 20 billion VND to PVC.KBC was illegal but still went through with it, leading to the loss of over 19.4 billion VND, according to the verdict. –VNA