Vietnam tycoon sentenced to 30 years for fraud

HANOI, Vietnam — A Vietnamese court has sentenced one of the country’s richest men to 30 years in prison after convicting him of financial crimes.

Nguyen Duc Kien, a flamboyant businessman who also headed the Hanoi ACB football club, was arrested in 2012 as part of what was seen as the fall out of a power struggle among Communist Party leaders.

A Hanoi court sentenced Kien on Monday after finding him guilty of millions of dollars of fraud at investment companies he ran.

Kien was the director of Asia Commercial Bank, one of Vietnam’s largest. His arrest triggered a run on the bank’s deposits and highlighted concern about the weak state of Vietnam’s banking sector.

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