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Tran Bac Ha, former chairman of Vietnam's largest bank, dies in custody
Linh Pham 16:05, 2019/07/18
The former chairman worked at BIDV for 35 years, including 8 years at the post of chairman until retirement in 2016.
Tran Bac Ha, former chairman of Vietnam’s largest commercial bank by assets Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), was reported to have died in custody due to “illness”. 
 
BIDV former chairman Tran Bac Ha. Photo: Lao Dong
BIDV former chairman Tran Bac Ha. Photo: Lao Dong
VnExpress quoted Colonel Do Quang Mao from Military Hospital 105 as saying that Tran Bac Ha, 62, was confirmed dead before being sent to the hospital on Thursday morning (July 18). 
 
Meanwhile, the Tuoi Tre Online reported that Ha died of alleged illness as he suffered liver diseases before.
 
Colonel Do Quang Mao said the body has been sent to a funeral house, adding that the hospital would carry out an autopsy if the police order. 
 
Ha was in custody for eight months to serve investigations on his wrongdoing at BIDV. He was detained in a military guardhouse in Hanoi’s outlying district of Soc Son, according to Tuoi Tre Online. 
 
In November 2018, Ha and some of executives at BIDV were arrested and probed for “infringing regulations on banking operations” and other violations under the Penal Code. 
 
Ha and his accomplices were accused of involving in losses worth hundreds of billions of dong in cow raising project in the central province of Ha Tinh and the lending of VND4.7 trillion (US$204 million) to Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB). 
 
In June 2018, the Party’s Central Inspection Commission proposed stripping Ha of his Party membership due to "serious violations.”
 
In trials against former chairman of VNCB Pham Cong Danh, Ha was summoned three times for involving in the case but he refused to show up on the ground of going to Singapore for “health treatment.”
 
Ha, who was born in the central province of Binh Dinh, worked at BIDV since 1981. He held the post of chairman in 2008 until retirement in 2016. He was said to be influential in the operations of the bank and the Vietnamese financial system. Rumors on his arrest caused a plunge in the local stock market twice.
 
In March 2019, Ha’s son named Tran Duy Tung, 34, chairman of An Phu JSC headquartered in Binh Dinh, was arrested and probed on charges of “influence peddling to appropriate assets”. 
 
As of end-November 2018, BIDV’s total assets reached more than VND1.25 trillion (US$55 billion). 
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