Tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien, former vice chair of ACB Bank, is in court today facing charges of major crimes that caused huge losses to a local bank.

Mogul Nguyen Duc Kien

The charges against Kien include illegal business, extortion, asset appropriation, tax evasion and intentional breach of state regulations on economic management. Among Kien's seven accomplices, former chairman of ACB, Tran Xuan Gia, was absent. Gia's lawyers asked to delay the trial because of health problems.

Kien said, however, "Please continue with the trial. Tran Xuan Gia's absence does not have any bearing on the accusations and this will be a long trial." He went on to say that he wanted to expose the truth. Regarding the charge of illegal business, Kien asked to summon representatives from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and the Government Office because his business licenses were given by them.

On December 15, 2013, the Supreme People's Procuracy filed the charges against Nguyen Duc Kien. They also accused other high-ranking employees of ACB of crimes of economic mismanagement, which caused losses of over VND1.7 trillion (USD81.5 million).

Kien has been accused of tax evasion, estimated at a total of VND25 billion in a deal between B&B Company and ACB in which he earned more than VND100 billion. Four of the officials directed their ACB staff to illegally deposit bank money in 29 other banks to benefit from a higher interest rate. However, the VND719 billion deposit at VietinBank was appropriated by Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu. 

Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu

Initially, one of Kien's accomplices, Pham Trung Cang, was under prosecution and banned from leaving the country. However, that ban was lifted and the charges against Cang were dropped in December last year. A few days later, Cang left Vietnam. Cang was called back in January, when the Hanoi People's Court asked for additional investigation into Cang's and another accomplice's activities.

Pham Trung Cang in court

Several lawyers have asked for a delay in Kien's trial in order to get the results of Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu's trial. They said that even though ACB officials had illegally deposited money into VietinBank, they were also swindled by Nhu, so punishments and consequences for Nhu's actions must be determined before the trial.