INSURER EMBEZZLES 8.8BN DONG SAYS VIETNAM POLICE

A central police agency is investigating an alleged 8.8bn dong’s worth of commissions paid by a Ho Chi Minh branch of the Post and Telecommunication Insurance Company, a State-owned insurer. According to police, the payment of state funds to a select group of agents contravenes company commission policy and was “groundless, causing losses to the state budget”. Over a four year period, from 2001 to September 2005, the company paid out over 12.5bn dong to a total of 99 agents. Furthermore, three agents who had relatives or close friends working at the insurer received over 7.2bn dong of the total payments. A company director Nguyen Van Minh has admitted wrongful payments but denied that he has made any personal gain from the payments.