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​Vietnamese bankers face jail times for roles in $11mn savings thefts

​Vietnamese bankers face jail times for roles in $11mn savings thefts

Friday, September 14, 2018, 15:25 GMT+7

The Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam has filed charges against six employees of private lender Eximbank for ‘lack of responsibility’ that helped their now fugitive boss to steal VND264 billion (US$11 million) from depositors’ accounts.

All six defendants worked at the bank’s Ho Chi Minh City branch, where three customers had money stolen from multiple of their savings accounts by a branch leader who has fled overseas.

They bankers face five to ten years behind bars if found guilty.

According to the indictment, local businesswoman Chu Thi Binh had been making large deposits at the branch since 2007, which allowed her to enjoy VIP privileges including having her transactions personally handled by Le Nguyen Hung, deputy director of the branch.

From 2014, Hung allegedly started to withdraw money totaling VND245 billion ($10.61 million) from Binh’s 11 saving accounts by taking advantage of her trust and using forged documents.

He deposited the stolen money into an account he had opened in the name of his wife's aunt.

Hung is also accused of abusing his employees' trust to forge withdrawal and deposit slips to steal an additional VND19 billion ($824,000) from two other customers’ accounts.

He allegedly exchanged part of the money into U.S. dollars, which he used to flee abroad, according to the indictment.

Hung's frauds were only discovered in 2017 when Binh found a huge sum had gone missing from her accounts, by which time he had already quit working for the bank.

An international arrest warrant has since been issued for the absconding banker.

In the indictment, prosecutors charged six of Hung’s subordinates with failing to comply with banking regulations, enabling the deputy director to steal the money.

Hung himself faces charges of "appropriating property through swindling," which carries the death penalty. The charge will be pressed upon his apprehension.

Eximbank last month made a full compensation of Binh’s stolen money after reaching an agreement with the victim on resolving the dispute.

“I have deposited the entire compensated money into saving accounts opened at the branch,” Binh was quoted as saying by local news site Zing.

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Tuan Son / Tuoi Tre News

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