While this month’s death sentences in a multi-billion dollar fraud case in Vietnam may show the strength of Hanoi’s anti-corruption drive, interviews in recent days have revealed growing concerns about impunity in Vietnam’s politics and the fragility of the country’s low-wage public sector. and ongoing concerns about sex and corruption.
Meanwhile, two interviewees expressed doubts that the sentences would actually be carried out.
On April 11, Zhang Meilan, the 68-year-old chairman of the real estate company Wanshengfa Holdings Group, was sentenced to death for embezzling US$12.5 billion, causing losses that have now reached US$27 billion, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison each for bribery and violation of banking regulations. . The court also ordered her to return $27 billion to Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) to cover the impact of 11 years of bad loans.
In 2012, Lan merged three banks into Standard Chartered Bank. Although Vietnamese law prohibits anyone from owning more than 5% of any bank, prosecutors said Lan indirectly owned 91.5% of Standard Chartered through agents and thousands of shell companies.
Nguyen Hong Hai, a senior lecturer at Vin University in Hanoi, said Lan’s sentence showed the government’s efforts to deliver public information.
“We have to put this in the context of the ongoing anti-corruption fight launched by the party in 2016,” Hai told VOA on April 16.
“They want to send a clear message to the public that they do want to clean up society and are determined to fight corruption.”
A 38-year-old bank employee in Ho Chi Minh City expressed similar sentiments in a written message on April 17. He told VOA that the verdict would help restore people’s confidence in financial institutions.
“Lan and her people exploited the banking system to use money for their own purposes,” he wrote in Vietnamese. “A quick verdict helps to regain people’s trust.”
Corruption may be widespread
However, Zachary Abuza, an expert on Southeast Asia and a professor at the National War College in Washington, said corruption in Vietnam’s banking sector may be widespread and that senior officials have escaped implication despite the sentences imposed.
On April 12, he told VOA that the Chinese Communist Party “did conduct containment and ensure that some lower-level party officials and regulators were held accountable, but it did not expand further.”
“It should definitely be higher,” he added.
During the trial, in addition to Lan, 85 people were punished, with sentences ranging from suspended sentences to life imprisonment. Do Thi Nhan, the State Bank of Vietnam’s chief banking ombudsman, has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting $5.2 million in bribes to cover up misconduct at Standard Chartered Bank.
Hanoi’s Hai said authorities may be implicated in Lan’s corrupt business practices and more officials may be exposed.
“In any corruption case, they are going to be connected to the authorities and government officials in some way, especially when it comes to a very huge corruption case like this one involving real estate and banking,” Hai said.
“Perhaps there will be more investigations… The authorities have not said the case is closed,” he said.
systemic bribery
Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s Yusof Issa Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said part of the cycle of corruption that led to Lam’s scam was the low wages paid to public sector workers, making them vulnerable to bribes.
Jiang Zemin told Voice of America on April 17 that the monthly salary of the secretary-general, the highest government position, is about US$1,000, and that of mid-level officials is about US$400. Those who enter the public sector after graduating from college will not earn enough if they do not accept bribes or accept bribes. to make ends meet. Take on a side job.
“People who start working for the state get about $150 a month,” Giang said. “If you get that kind of salary, you can’t survive in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.”
The government is trying to address this problem by increasing public sector wages by 30% from July this year. While the move showed “strong political will,” Jiang said he was concerned that at such low wages it would not be enough to stop entrenched corruption.
“We have 2.5 million bureaucrats,” he said. “There are a lot of people on the state payroll, and basically when you have too many people and the pie is small, it’s impossible to give everyone their share they want.”
Penalties may not be carried out
Lan’s execution, meanwhile, may not actually be carried out, although the execution shows how serious the government is about corruption.
Ha Huy Son, director of Ha Son Law Firm in Hanoi, told VOA on April 11 that he expected the Court of Appeal to commute Lan’s death sentence.
He said Lan’s death sentence “sends the message that the authorities will not be lenient towards economic crimes that cause collateral damage”. He added that Vietnamese courts “have established norms” whereby defendants in corruption cases will have their sentences reduced if they compensate more than three-quarters of the losses caused.
Besides, he said. An execution could take up to 20 years, and Lan was almost 70 years old.
Le Quoc Quan, a dissident and lawyer who lives in exile in Virginia, predicted to VOA on April 11 that Lan would not be executed, saying that although the death penalty was needed “to appease public sentiment boiling over corruption,” It “can also be used as a bargaining chip to force Lan to pay compensation. “
“Zhang Meilan is still alive and in good health, which will help recover the losses. Zhang Meilan is dead and is of no use,” Quan said.
VOA’s Vietnamese service’s Le Nguyen reported from Washington.
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