CEO of big-bucks Vienamese lottery company Vietlott resigns abruptly

The Ministry of Finance on Saturday announced it had accepted the resignation of the CEO of a state-owned company that has been shot to fame in Vietnam with its American-style lottery.

Tong Quoc Truong, CEO of Vietnam Lottery Co. Ltd. (Vietlott), resigned on October 1 due to personal reasons, the ministry said in a statement without elaborating. The ministry has assigned his deputy Nguyen Thanh Dam to hold the fort until a new CEO can be picked next week.

Truong had been Vietlott's CEO since the company's foundation in August 2012.

In January last year, Vietlott signed an exclusive 18-year contract with Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya to launch computerized lottery games. The company has since become popular in Vietnam with its American-style lottery Mega 6/45, as well as newer products Max 4D and Power 6/55. 

In its financial report for the first half of 2017, Vietlott reported a total profit of nearly VND133 billion ($5.85 million).

Before his success with Vietlott, Truong was the chief investment officer of state-owned fuel giant PetroVietnam. He was also the CEO of its subsidiary PetroVietnam Finance Corporation (PVFC) between 2007 and 2010. Truong's predecessor at PVFC was Nguyen Xuan Son, who was sentenced to death last week by a court in Hanoi for his role in the infamous multi-million-dollar graft case at OceanBank.

At least three PetroVietnam units were put under investigation earlier this month for colluding with OceanBank execs to appropriate $5.2 million.

PetroVietnam and the banking sector are at the center of Vietnam’s sweeping corruption crackdown that has ensnared scores of high-ranking officials, including Dinh La Thang, a former member of the Communist Party’s decision-making Politburo who headed PetroVietnam from 2005 to 2011.