Former Sacombank vice chairman back to business after 7 years in jail

Former vice board chairman of Sacombank Tram Be has been appointed a board member of Trieu An Hospital Corporation for the term 2022-2027 after seven years in prison.

The shareholders of Trieu An Hospital voted in favor with 98.98% for the appointment of Tram Be.

In mid February, Tram Be completed two prison sentences, Tra Vinh province's prosecution authority told local media.

Tram Be was arrested on August 1, 2017. On August 6, 2018, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced him to four years in prison for the crime of intentionally violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.

The damage occurred when Tram Be held the position of vice board chairman and credit council chairman of private creditor Sacombank.

On July 30, 2020, the HCMC people's court sentenced Tram Be to three years in prison.

Trieu An Hospital was founded in 2001 by Tram Be, Dr. Nguyen Hai Nam and Lam Trung Luong. When Tram Be was arrested, Tran Ngoc Henri became chairman.

Tram Be, 64, is a Vietnamese citizen of Chinese origin born in Tra Vinh province.

Before entering the banking industry, he invested in a number of other fields. He established Dong Anh Forest Products Processing Company and was a board member of Binh Chanh Construction Investment Shareholding Company (BCCI) and chairman of Trieu An Hospital Corporation.

In 2004, Tram Be continued his foray into the financial sector with the purchase of a large number of shares in Southern Bank, and became a board member.

He then acquired shares in Sacombank and proposed merging Southern Bank, which was struggling with a high bad debt ratio, with Sacombank. The proposal received State Bank approval in August 2015.

As one of the first private hospitals in the country and with a large scale, Trieu An Hospital treats tens of thousands of cases and provide medical examinations for hundreds of thousands of people.

In the past 10 years, the hospital has posted a revenue of over VND350 billion ($14.9 million) and profit of more than VND30 billion ($1.3 million) per year, except 2021 when it reported a loss of VND27 billion ($1.15 million) given the peak of the pandemic.

In 2022, the hospital recorded a revenue of VND591 billion ($25.17 million) and after-tax profit of VND41 billion ($1.75 million).

This year, Trieu An Hospital has set a revenue target of VND628 billion ($26.7 milllion) and post-tax profit of VND47 billion ($2 million), up 6% and up 15% year-on-year, respectively.