Vietnam arrests exec of oil giant's construction unit for alleged embezzlement

Police on Friday arrested and pressed charges against three officials allegedly involved in the mismanagement and embezzlement case at PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVC), the construction unit of state-owned oil giant PetroVietnam.

The arrests were made as part of an investigation into nearly $150 million in losses accumulated at PVC, which has already caught a number of oil execs, including a runaway former chairman of PVC who “voluntarily returned” last month.

Nguyen Anh Minh, the CEO of PVC, was arrested together with Bui Manh Hien, the firm's chief of staff and Nguyen Duc Hung, the former head of accounting and finance on the management board of PVC's Vung Ang-Quang Trach Project. The three men have been charged with embezzlement, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

From left to right: Minh, Hien and Hung. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Public Security.

Relating to the case, police arrested four officials involved in the Vung Ang-Quang Trach Project and placed another under house arrest back in February.

Police on Tuesday also arrested Le Dinh Mau, the chief accountant of PetroVietnam, for “violating state regulations on economic management causing serious consequences” as part of the investigation into PVC's losses. Four former executives of PVC were arrested last year. Its former chairman, Trinh Xuan Thanh, “turned himself in” last month after a 10-month international manhunt. Thanh had been seeking political asylum in Germany.

Two officials at PetroVietnam's Thai Binh 2 power plant project and a former vice chairman of PVC were also arrested on Tuesday for their involvement in the case.

Vietnam’s anti-corruption campaign, spearheaded by Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, is focusing on the much-cosseted public sector. Trong said in July that the fight against corruption is no longer being handled slowly and on a case-by case basis.

"It has become a movement," he said.