Former central bank official accused of mismanagement, causing $55M losses

Tran Quoc Tuan, 62, former director of SBV branch in Dong Nai Province; and Vo Khac Hien, former vice director of the branch, will be on trial at the Dong Nai People's Court for "negligence that results in serious consequences" on Oct. 25.

Tuan worked as director of the branch from 2014 to 2017. On February 10, 2014, the branch issued a plan to inspect Tan Tien credit fund in the province, but Tuan did not allow the inspection to go as planned, instead pushing it back to 2015.

From 2015 and 2016, reports have shown signs of insecurity regarding the credit fund, but Tuan still did not allow an inspection.

In April 2017, Tuan instructed Hien and Le Xuan Huong, the branch's deputy chief inspector, to come and learn about the situation. When Tuan learned that there were multiple violations with the fund, he still did not order an inspection, instead signing a confidential document requesting for violations to be resolved.

In November 2017, the Tan Tien credit fund went bankrupt, resulting in losses worth VND810 billion.

Authorities said that within the same time periods, several credit funds like Thanh Binh, Thai Binh, Dau Giay, Gia Kiem and Quang Tien also committed multiple violations, resulting in them going bankrupt and unable to pay over VND500 billion.

Prosecutors said Tuan, as the director of the branch, did not do inspections and monitoring appropriately, as well as interfering with inspection results.

They said Tuan did not follow instructions from the State Bank of Vietnam, so he did not detect violations of credit funds in Dong Nai timely, causing six funds to go bankrupt and resulting in losses worth over VND1.352 trillion.

Hien, as the chief bank inspector and vice director of the branch, did not fulfill his duties in monitoring and inspecting credit activities in Dong Nai, so he did not detect violations of the funds timely enough, leading to financial losses.