Defendants at the court. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has been jailed for 11 years.

Đinh La Thăng was sentenced to 11 years in prison, after he was found guilty of violating regulations on investment in construction works which caused serious consequences at an ethanol plant in the northern province of Phú Thọ on March 15.

Thang was charged in line with Article 224, Clause 3 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Combined with sentences given to him in previous cases, Thăng will spend a total of 30 years behind bars.

Former General Director of the PetroVietnam PetroChemicals and Biofuel JSC (PVB) Vũ Thanh Hà was jailed for six and a half years for the same charge.

Trần Thị Bình, former Deputy Director General of PetroVietnam, received a 36-month suspended sentence.

Former General Director of the PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVC) Phạm Xuân Diệu will spend three and a half years behind bars, while former Deputy General Director of PVC Nguyễn Ngọc Dung was sentenced to three years.

Jail terms ranging from 24 to 30 months were handed down to other defendants for the same charge.  

Former Chairman of the Board of Directors and former General Director of the PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVC) Trịnh Xuân Thanh was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “violating regulations on investment in construction works, causing serious consequences”, and eight years behind bars for “abusing position and power while performing duties”. Taking into account previous sentences, he faced life imprisonment.

Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of the Kinh Bắc Petroleum Construction and Investment JSC Đỗ Văn Hồng was given a jail term of four years for “abusing position and power while performing duties”. Combined with sentences given to him earlier, Hồng will serve a total of 17 years.

According to the indictment, Thăng signed a resolution to approve the investment in the project in October 2007. With Thang’s instruction, PVC/Alfa Laval/Delta-T joint contractors, who had no previous experience in carrying out ethanol projects, were appointed to implement the project.

As a result, the project was continuously behind schedule and stopped in March 2013 with no construction completed.

Wrongdoings of the defendants were said to cause a loss of more than VNĐ543 billion (US$3.49 million).

At the court, Thanh confessed that when signing the contract on the implementation of the project with a funding of $59 million, he was aware that the amount is not enough to cover the implementation.

The judge stated that Thăng must take the main responsibility in selecting the contractor.

Such wrongdoings in contractor selection have resulted in the suspension of the project, with no work completed so far, according to the judge. — VNS