The former chief accountant at a subsidiary of Vietnam’s state-owned shipbuilding giant Vinashin has been detained on embezzlement charges in a US$18.6mn corruption case thatwas uncovered in 2010, investigators said on Tuesday.

Tran Van Khuong, 65, ex-chief accountant at Vinashin Ocean Shipping Co. Ltd., or Vinashinlines, under Vinashin, was arrested on Tuesday for investigation on embezzlement charges, said the investigative police agency of the Ministry of Public Security.

On July 7, 2015, police arrested Giang Kim Dat, 38, a former acting sales manager at Vinashinlines, five years after he fled abroad. 

On August 23, 2010, police served a prosecution notice on Dat, but he had already fled, so officers searched for him internationally with the help of Interpol. The search for Dat included many countries before police were able to seize and escort him back to Vietnam.

Khuong is alleged to be involved in Dat’s purchases of ships from abroad through which they received illegitimate commissions and other illegal incomes, according to investigators.

Dat and Khuong colluded with foreign partners to embezzle nearly $18.6 million from May 2006 to June 2008, investigators said.  

Dat not only committed embezzlement at Vinashinlines but was also involved in the Vinashin corruption scandal uncovered in 2010, for which Vinashin ex-chairman Pham Thanh Binh was sentenced to 20 years in prison along with his seven accomplices who received jail terms of 10-19 years, investigators said.

The seven ex-officials had their sentences handed down at their appeal trial ending on August 30, 2012.

They were charged with “deliberately acting against the state’s regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.”

The total cost to the state budget their actions caused was VND910 billion ($40.8 million).

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