Vietnam police captured Duong Chi Dung, a former director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, on Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Security said Wednesday.

Duong Chi Dung was arrested

Dung, 55, was nabbed reportedly in a Southeast Asian nation, and then extradited to Vietnam by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Dung has been wanted internationally since May 19 following his alleged economic offenses when he was board chairman of the state-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) corporation.

An indictment and arrest warrant was issued for him one day earlier but he was not found at home or in office.

According to the Interpol documents, Dung “intentionally flouted state regulations on economic management, leading to serious consequences” when selecting bidders to provide a floating dock worth millions of dollars for Vinalines during his term at the corporation.

Local investigators have also accused Dung and his associates of going against the Prime Minister’s directives on the construction of a Vinalines ship repair facility in southern Vietnam.

In particular, Dung was found approving the building of the facility in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province at a total investment of VND3.8 trillion ($185 million) in June 2007 without formal permission from the Premier.

Vinalines then raised the construction cost to VND6.5 trillion ($311 million) before initiating the building work in July 2011 with a mere VND616 billion ($29.6 million) in hand, even though the corporation failed to secure funding deals with any lenders.

It was next found that the state firm wasted almost VND514 billion ($24.6 million) of the available cash while buying a floating dock from Russia. Signs of corruption have been identified in this spending.

Dung may be imprisoned for life if convicted.

Police previously arrested Mai Van Phuc, former Vinalines CEO, and Tran Huu Chieu, former Vinalines deputy CEO, for similar purported economic wrongdoings at the state giant.

The arrest of the former maritime chief came just days after Ly Xuan Hai, ex-general director of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Nguyen Duc Kien, one of Vietnam’s most powerful tycoons were arrested on August 23 and August 20 respectively.

Two days after Kien’s arrest, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended the 18th session of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption in Hanoi where he praised police forces in launching an investigation into illegal activities aimed at hostile takeovers in the banking sector.

At this meeting, the Prime Minister also ordered the speedup of the investigation and manhunt for Duong Chi Dung.