Vietnamese tycoon disappears amidst fraud speculation

By Bennett Murray

HANOI (AA) - The former leader of a beleaguered state-owned yarn mill in Vietnam has gone missing amidst suspicions of criminal mismanagement.

The government has ordered Vinachem to conduct a legal review of Vu Dinh Duy, who currently sits on the board of the state-owned chemical giant, after he stopped reporting for work in late October, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Friday.

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade has ordered that Vinachem summon Duy to work,” Tran Huu Linh, head of the secretariat of the ministry, told Tuoi Tre, adding that Duy’s leave of absence was unauthorized.

Duy has taken a leave of absence and is likely overseas for medical treatment, Vinachem reported Wednesday.

While no charges have been filed against Duy, the suspicions stem from his time as general director of the Dinh Vu yarn mill in northern Vietnam’s Haiphong city from 2009 to 2014.

The factory, which is majority owned by the state-owned oil and gas company PetroVietnam, reported losses of $325 million under Duy’s watch.

Upon being demoted at the firm in 2014, Duy was appointed deputy head of the government agency responsible for overseeing industrial and environmental safety.

Former industry and trade minister Vu Huy Hoang, who was responsible for Duy’s transfer, was censured by the ruling Communist Party in October 2016 for promoting multiple officials in violation of anti-corruption laws.

Another Hoang appointee, Trinh Xuan Thanh, has been on the run since September fleeing a criminal investigation into a $150 million loss incurred by a PetroVietnam construction subsidiary that Thanh formerly chaired.

Criminal investigations into state-owned enterprises occur regularly in Vietnam, where executives sometimes allow businesses to incur losses for personal gain.

Two executives of the VinaShin state-run shipbuilding company were sentenced to death in 2013 for involvement in an embezzlement case that caused a $600 million default on foreign loans.

Moody’s cited the default as a reason for its 2010 sovereign credit rating downgrade for Vietnam.