From ABC Australia
A Vietnamese court has sentenced disgraced banking tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien to 30 years in jail over a multi-million dollar scandal.
Former banking tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien is led into the Hanoi People’s Court before being sentenced to 30 years in jail. AFP/Vietnam News Agency
Kien, 50, was found guilty of fraud, tax evasion, illegal trade and “deliberate wrongdoing causing serious consequences”, according to the verdict read at the Hanoi People’s Court.
“The accused was not honest and so must be given serious punishment in line with his crime,” court president Nguyen Huu Chinh said at the end of the two-week trial on Monday.
Kien, who denied the charges against him, was also handed a 75 billion dong ($3.5 million) fine.
The flamboyant multi-millionaire went on trial alongside seven other defendants – all top bankers at Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), which counts global banking giant Standard Chartered as one of its “strategic partners”.
The other defendants were given sentences of between two and eight years.
The most senior of the other defendants, the former director of ACB, Ly Xuan Hai, was given eight years.
According to the verdict, Kien – a shareholder in some of Vietnam’s largest financial institutions and a founder of ACB – and his accomplices caused losses of $67 million through illegal cross-bank deposits and investments.
Read the full story from ABC Australia.
