Bankers at a state-run Vietnamese bank and Dutch bank ABN Amro made hundreds of illegal foreign exchange transactions, an online newspaper on Saturday quoted the country's top police investigator as saying.
The comments were the latest on a six-month long probe of a dispute between Incombank and ABN Amro that has prompted European and US business groups to complain about possible "criminalisation of normal business activity" in Vietnam.
The case has strained diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the Netherlands. A Dutch cabinet minister said in Hanoi on Wednesday that her government was trying to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the September 10-11 Asia-Europe Meeting in Helsinki.
Saturday's VnExpress quoted Major-General Pham Quy Ngo, head of the Ministry of Police investigation unit as saying: "Investigation documents showed that Incombank's Hai Phong branch and ABN Amro's Hanoi branch had executed unlawfully nearly 600 foreign exchange contracts."
Incombank, the fourth-largest bank in Vietnam, filed a lawsuit in early August seeking $5.4 million from ABN Amro for foreign exchange losses, people familiar with the case have said. VnExpress quoted Ngo as saying losses incurred by Incombank were $3.8 million and 12 billion dong ($750,000).
An ABN Amro spokeswoman declined to comment on the report, but she said the bank maintained all along that the trades were valid and all settled.
Ngo said ABN Amro's country representative, a US citizen, would be held responsible but he added that she would be acquitted of criminal charges if the Dutch bank repaid the losses to the Vietnamese bank. The representative was allowed to leave Vietnam in late August for medical treatment during pregnancy after being denied permission by authorities for months.
Ngo denied the accusations by foreign business groups. He said police "followed the rule of law and have not criminalised normal business activities of companies."
State-run newspapers have reported one Incombank employee was in custody. ABN Amro said two Vietnamese employees of the Dutch bank were being detained and two were under house arrest.
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