Former seafood businessman gets 18 years behind bars

Former seafood businessman gets 18 years behind bars The Saigon Times Daily Phan Ba Tong (L, 1), ex-director of Thien Ma Seafood Import and Export Co., Ltd, and other defendants sit on a bench at the People’s Court of Can Tho City – PHOTO: VNA CAN THO – A former seafood entrepreneur in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for misappropriation of assets from Vietnam Development Bank (VDB), reported the Vietnam News Agency. After a 10-day trial and deliberations, the People’s Court of Can Tho City handed down its guilty verdicts to Phan Ba Tong, alias Tong Thien Ma, 44, ex-director of Thien Ma Seafood Import and Export Co., Ltd, based in Tra Noc 2 Industrial Park, and his accomplices. Tran Thi Diem, 48, former chief accountant at Thien Ma Company, was also convicted on the same charge. Other defendants – Nguyen Thi Mai, 61, former head of the Export Credit Division; Lam Chi Cong, 42, former deputy head of the division; and Huynh Thanh Truc, 38, former credit staff at the Can Tho Branch of the VDB, or VDB Can Tho – were charged with economic mismanagement. Tong was found to have used loan money from 13 debt certificates of export credit contracts issued by VDB Can Tho in 2009 to repay his debts at other banks and used the remainder for his personal purposes, according to the indictment. Tong instructed Diem and other staff members to falsify his company’s… [Read full story]