Tran Buu Nuu, an officer belonging to the Bình Thanh District police in HCM City, helps a victim make a complaint against Saigon Commercial Bank where she had bought the bonds. - VNS
Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam’s police has issued arrest warrants for two former chairs of Saigon Commercial Bank, which experienced a bank run last year after customers feared the lender was tied to a real estate conglomerate under investigation for fraud.
The Public Security Ministry charged the bank’s former chairman Dinh Van Thanh with alleged asset embezzlement and violations of banking operation regulations, according to a statement on the ministry’s website.
Police also announced a nationwide hunt for the bank’s former chairwoman Nguyen Thi Thu Suong and ex-deputy chief executive Chiem Minh Dung, who’ve been charged with alleged banking regulation violations.
A representative for Saigon Commercial Bank was not immediately available for comment. Police are also seeking the arrests of three board members and a former deputy director of one of the bank’s branches.
Vietnam’s central bank spent a week last October calming markets and depositors after police detained Truong My Lan, chairwoman of real estate conglomerate Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, and other company officials.
They were connected with an investigation into the issuance and trading of bonds of related companies where trillions of dong were allegedly misappropriated in 2018 and 2019.
At the time, customers of Saigon Commercial Bank feared the lender was tied to the investigation, though government agencies and newspapers reported no evidence of a link. The rumours prompted depositors to quickly pull savings from the bank.
Police announced earlier this month that they were seeking assistance from investors in an ongoing investigation into real estate firm Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group.
The authorities accused the company of allegedly defrauding and appropriating more than 30 trillion dong, according to a statement on the government’s website.
After the bank run last year, the State Bank of Vietnam put privately-held Saigon Commercial Bank under “special scrutiny” and directed four state-run banks to help manage it.
The four banks are the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, or Vietcombank, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, or BIDV, Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, or Agribank, and Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank For Industry and Trade, or VietinBank.
“The central bank will also coordinate with other relevant ministries to take necessary and comprehensive measures to ensure SCB’s operations are safe and sound,” the central bank said in a statement at the time.
Vietnam’s property market has been in disarray since 2021, when an ambitious anti-corruption campaign brought the sector to a halt. The downward spiral has been slowed thanks to regulatory interventions but continues to weigh on the economy.
In his address to parliament last week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh warned that an “unpredictable” global economy could continue to impact export-reliant Vietnam, along with “internal limitations and inadequacies”. — Bloomberg
