HANOI: Vietnamese police have arrested three more
suspects as part of a widening scandal in the communist country's shipping
industry, an official said Sunday.
The
deputy director general of state-owned shipping giant Vinalines, 53-year-old
Bui Quoc Anh, was detained on Friday for embezzlement along with two others
including a state auditor, a company official told AFP.
Local
media reports identified the third suspect as an executive at a subsidiary of
Vinalines, which is the country's biggest sea shipping group, operating a fleet
of oil tankers, container ships and other vessels.
The
arrests were based on investigations involving one of nine former top
executives at scandal-tainted shipbuilder Vinashin jailed last month for
intentionally violating state regulations, the official said.
He gave
no further details, but the official Thanh Nien newspaper reported Sunday that
the three new suspects pocketed "billions of dong (tens of thousands of
dollars) for personal gain" when buying a container ship,
The
scandal at Vinashin -- which almost collapsed in 2010 under billions of dollars
of debt -- sparked investor fears of wider problems at state-owned firms, a key
pillar of Vietnam's economy.
Former
Vinashin chairman Pham Thanh Binh was last month jailed for 20 years, while
eight other former executives at the shipbuilder were handed sentences of
between three and 19 years.
The
executives were accused of losing more than US$43 million, mostly from the
procurement of an Italian-made high-speed passenger boat as well as two
electricity plants.
Some
loss-making sea transport projects at Vinashin have been transferred to
Vinalines.
State-owned
groups, many of which are widely regarded as badly managed, control two-thirds
of capital and assets in Vietnam and enjoy cosy relations with officials.
-
AFP/wm
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment