AFP, August 26, 2012
HANOI: The arrest of one of Vietnam’s top banking tycoons reflects a wider power struggle among the Communist rulers over how to tackle the country’s deepening economic troubles, experts say.
Flamboyant multi-millionaire Nguyen Duc Kien, a shareholder in some of Vietnam’s largest financial institutions and a founder of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), was detained on Monday, and ACB’s ex-head officially joined him in custody three days later.
The arrests, for unspecified economic crimes, caused public panic, wiping some $5.0 billion in value from
Vietnam’s stock markets and triggering a bank run as depositors rushed to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of ACB.
But “the bigger concern is the potential for political instability… Kien’s arrest could signify increasing discord among political elites and factions”, according to a report by intelligence group Stratfor.
Read more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/1222297/1/.html
