Vietnamese bank clerk disappears with $800k he was transporting

Vietnamese bank clerk disappears with $800k he was transporting

An Agribank branch in Ho Chi Minh City. File photo

State-owned lender Agribank has asked police to track down an employee who it said had vanished with a large sum of money worth nearly US$800,000.

Nguyen Le Kieu Quang, 37, manager of a small branch in Ho Chi Minh City, was transporting VND17 billion (US$796,450) from another branch in District 1 on Friday morning, with a co-worker and a driver.

He asked them to leave him at a foreign bank to have the money exchanged.

Quang said he would call them to return and pick him up.

He never did. The bank lost contact with him that afternoon.

Police have arrested the co-worker, Phu Minh Hoa, for investigation. The driver remains free.

Agribank, officially known as the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, is currently the country’s largest state-owned bank, and has made headlines with huge lapses in management.

A series of Agribank leaders have been arrested since 2013.

Pham Thanh Tan, the bank’s former general director, and his deputy Kieu Trong Tuyen are being probed for lending violations worth around VND3.9 trillion ($184 million) at the bank branch in southern Hanoi.

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