Dinh La Thang arrested for alleged economic mismanagement at PVN

Dinh La Thang, a former Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Commitee, has been arrested for alleged economic management while chairman of the State-owned National Oil and Gas Group (PVN).

Dinh La Thang
Dinh La Thang

Thang was earlier removed from the National Assembly at an extraordinary session of the parliament’s standing committee on December 8.

At the same time, Thang will be suspended from all of his Party posts, including deputy head of the Central Economic Commission, and be barred from all Party activities for the duration of the investigation under a decision by the Central Organisation Committee.

According to the police, Thang was arrested as part of investigations into his involvement in two major economic cases.

He was accused of intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and an abuse of power in misappropriating state assets and causing a loss of VND800 billion (US$35.2 million) to PVN when investing in Oceanbank.

Thang also faces embezzlement charges in another criminal case at PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), a subsidiary of PVN.

In May this year, Thang had been removed from the Politburo, stripped of his post as Party chief of Ho Chi Minh City and transferred to the Central Economic Commission as one of its deputy heads after being found to have committed multiple serious violations.

As chairman of PVN during the 2009-2011 period, Thang was responsible for allowing the group and its member companies to illegally assign multiple contract packages.

For instance, PVC was assigned to implement the US$1.7 billion Thai Binh II thermal power project in which PVC transferred millions of US dollars to the project’s management board, causing huge losses to the state.

In addition to Thai Binh II, other projects PVC invested in such as the Dinh Vu polyester project and several biofuel plants also incurred significant losses.

While head of PVN, Thang also signed a decision to invest in Oceanbank before the group’s board of directors met to approve the deal and allowed investment exceeding the maximum ratio allowed by the law on credit institutions.

Born in 1960 in Nam Dinh province, Thang ran PVN for several years before being elected to the position of transport minister in 2011 and then becoming secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee in 2016.