Deputy General Director of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) Ninh Van Quynh was detained on Friday for “deliberately violating State regulations and causing serious consequences” for PVN.

Besides Quynh, the police also commenced criminal proceedings against four other former PVN executives for the same crime. They include Nguyen Xuan Son, ex-chairman of PVN, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem and Vu Khanh Truong, former board members of PVN.

The police said their wrongdoings had caused losses of VND800 billion (US$35.2 million) for the State-owned oil and gas conglomerate when it contributed charter capital to Ha Noi-based Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Ocean Bank) in the 2008-2011 period.

Son, who was the CEO of Ocean Bank from 2008 to 2010 before being appointed to top positions and later chairman at PVN, was detained in 2015 and is standing trial for his wrongdoings at the bank. Thang was also arrested on Friday while Liem and Truong are not allowed to leave their residential areas.

The police’s decision was made during the second phase of the investigation into a criminal case at Ocean Bank. The first-instance hearing of the case has been taking place since August 28, in which 51 defendants including the bank’s chairman Ha Van Tham and other top officials are charged with abuse of power and violations related to lending regulations and State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.

On Wednesday, Son told the court that at the time he was CEO of Ocean Bank, he had given VND30-40 billion a year to PVN, through Quynh, then the group’s chief accountant.

Son said the money was to thank the group’s leaders for their help in supporting the bank by asking its member companies and oil and gas contractors to use the bank’s deposit and payment services.

Quynh admitted that the groups’ leaders had supported the bank at the time following a co-operation agreement between the two sides, but rejected Son’s charge of receiving the money.

From 2008 to 2011, PVN contributed a total amount of VND800 billion to Ocean Bank three times.

In the 2009-2013 period, approved financial statements showed PVN received dividends worth VND244 billion.

However, a series of inspections by the State Bank of Viet Nam in 2014 showed the bank had performed poorly and incurred heavy losses. On May 6, 2015, SBV took over the bank at the price of 0 dong, citing the banks’ fragile operations with serious mismanagement. The takeover terminated all rights and interest as well as the status of existing shareholders at the bank, including PVN. – VNS