>> Trial begins of former PVN chairman Dinh La Thang
Meanwhile Trinh Xuan Thanh, former chairman of PVC, a unit of PVN, was given a life sentence after being found guilty of both economic mismanagement and embezzlement.
Vu Duc Thuan, former general director of PVC, was sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison for the same offences as Thanh.
Other defendants received sentences ranging from 17 months to 16 years in jail for either economic mismanagement or embezzlement.
The verdicts were announced by the People’s Court of Hanoi on January 22 in a two-week trial that involves many former and current leaders of PVN, also known as PetroVietnam, and PVC.
According to court documents, Thang was found to have broken the law when assigning PVC to carry out the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package at the Thai Binh 2 power plant.
Thang then ordered his subordinates at PVN and the project management unit to advance money to PVC, which was later used by Trinh Xuan Thanh and his accomplices on other purposes rather than on the Thai Binh 2 project.