Jail a Risk for Vietnam Investors
Investors hoping to make big money in Vietnam face risks, not the least of which is jail.
That’s the lesson learned by American businessman Hoan Nguyen, who sat in a Hanoi prison for 14 months while police investigated a business dispute with his government partners, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports.
Nguyen told the newspaper he was allowed to see a lawyer only twice while he was held without charges. A preliminary police report found there was not enough evidence to bring charges, but a final decision is still pending. Meanwhile, the $85,000 his family paid in what was supposed to be bail money has not been returned.
Businesspeople in Vietnam face risks of jail under the broadly defined crime of economic mismanagement, said Tony Foster, who heads the Vietnamese practice at British firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Business disputes turn into problems for the criminal justice system because complainants can’t get recourse in the ill-equipped civil justice system.
