HCMC – Le Duc Tho, former secretary of Ben Tre Province’s Party Committee and former chairman of state-run VietinBank, has been officially charged with accepting bribes and abusing his official positions for personal gains in connection with the Xuyen Viet Oil case.
The Supreme People’s Procuracy issued an indictment on September 18, prosecuting 15 persons involved in the case, including officials from various agencies and organizations.
Le Duc Tho faces charges of abusing his positions as VietinBank CEO and chairman, and Party secretary of Ben Tre Province, and receiving bribes.
Tho is accused of receiving US$600,000 in bribes to approve and extend credit limits for Xuyen Viet Oil while serving as general director and chairman of VietinBank. Additionally, he allegedly influenced the director of VietinBank’s Ben Tre branch to provide Xuyen Viet Oil with a VND400 billion loan on favorable terms.
In return for facilitating the lending, Tho allegedly received substantial personal benefits, including US$200,000 in cash, a set of golf clubs valued at VND1.1 billion, a Patek Philippe luxury watch worth US$421,000, and a Mercedes-Benz S450 car worth nearly VND6.7 billion.
Mai Thi Hong Hanh, director of Xuyen Viet Oil, has been charged with mismanagement of state assets, causing losses, and giving bribes.
Multiple former officials are also facing charges, including Do Thang Hai, former deputy minister of Industry and Trade; Tran Duy Dong, former head of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade; Hoang Anh Tuan, former deputy head of the Domestic Market Department; and Le Duy Minh, former director of the Department of Finance of HCMC; among others.
The investigation revealed that in 2016, Xuyen Viet Oil was licensed to trade petroleum products and was assigned by the Government to manage part of the fuel price stabilization fund. Hanh allegedly transferred funds from Xuyen Viet Oil’s account to her personal account, leading to a loss of over VND219 billion in state assets.
Hanh intentionally withheld the environmental protection tax funds she managed and collected on the state’s behalf, using them for personal purposes instead of depositing them into the State Treasury. This resulted in an inability to return the funds to the state budget, causing a loss of over VND1,244 billion.
To conceal these violations, Hanh reportedly paid bribes worth million of dollars to several officials.
