2010 – the unlucky year for many Vietnamese businessmen
2010 was an unlucky year for businessmen as heaped up debts, unprofitable business and legal incidents made many of them bankrupt.
While many CEOs in the world have been dismissed for the losses made in the 2010 fiscal year, the difficult post-global crisis period, a lot of Vietnamese businessmen too have been facing big troubles. Especially, Vinashin (The Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group), the giant in the shipbuilding industry, has been bogged down in debts and difficulties.
1. Former General Director of Jetstar Pacific arrested
On January 7, 2010, while the story about the sky high salaries of theexecutives of the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which specializes in investing state’s capital was being widely discussed on Internet forums, people heard that Luong Hoai Nam, Former General Director of Jetstar Pacific, a budget airline, was arrested. He was accused of causing the $4 million-loss incurred by Jetstar Pacific Airlines, where SCIC is managing the state’s capital. After eight months and 10 days in temporary detention, Nam was released and exempted from prosecution.
2. Former Deputy General Director of BIDV
One month later, on February 5, Deputy General Director of BIDV, a big state owned bank, Doan Tien Dung, was caught red-handed receiving a one billion dong bribe from a Hai Phong-based textile and garment company. The police suspected that Dung had been receiving briberies for a long time, and the total sum might have reached many billions dong.
3. Vinashin’s Chair sent to jail
August was considered the worst time among the business circle, when a series of leaders of Vinashion were dismissed from their posts and summoned for investigations. On August 4, the police arrested the former chair of Vinashin – Pham Thanh Binh, for the serious wrongdoings in the management which had led the economic group onto the verge of bankruptcy.
Binh was arrested just a couple of weeks after the plan on restructuring VInashion was made public.
After Binh, many other high ranking managers of Vinashin, including Managing Director Tran Quang Vu and directors of subsidiaries, were also arrested. Within just one month, VInashin replaced three general directors, and appointed a lot of new people for its higher positions
Once considered the leading corporation in Vietnam’s power industry, Vinashin, which aimed to become a leading shipbuilder in the world, has now become the debtor of many domestic and foreign credit institutions.
4. Thanh Ha project broke down, real estate developers arrested
Chair of the May 1 Construction and Service Company Le Hoa Binh was arrested for appropriate assets. The company’s general director Nguyen Manh Cuong has also been suspected of the same, but he has been released?. Both Binh and Cuong are believed to have been involved in illegal mobilization of capital for the project on Thanh Ha urban area in Hanoi.
5. Big guy jailed because he tried to sway stock prices
For the first time, Vietnam’s stock market, witnessed the arrest of a business general director for his attempts to control stock prices. The order to arrest CEO of Vien Dong Pharmacy - Le Van Dung – was released in late November. Dung is the first person prosecuted for swaying stock prices, since the criminal law was updated to include such casesfrom January 1.
Prior to the arrest, Dung and Vien Dong Pharmacy became famous as they planed to acquire Ha Tay Pharmacy.
Other managers of Vien Dong Pharmacy, including the finance deputy general director and some other key persons were also arrested following the accusations relating to their attempts to control the stock prices.
6. The ill fortune of Indochina Airlines’ manager
2010 was also a bad year for General Director of Indochina Airlines Ha Hung Dung, who has been a very well known musician in Vietnam’s showbusiness. Booking agents and partners of Indochina Airlines have threatened to sue the airline for the unsettled debts of up to tens of billions dong.
Indochina Airlines is now on the verge of bankruptcy, with no aircraft, no headquarter or staff.
Two years ago, when Ha Dung announced the launching of the first commercial flight, people already anticipated the bad end of the airline, because at that time the aviation market was in crisis
vietnamnet, VnExpress
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