[Vnbiz] [ABAJournal/WSJ] Jail a Risk for Vietnam Investors

[AD Marshall]

This following report was posted already in the thread "[Vnbiz] Intel
Vietnam refuses to pay bribes".  But given this list's apparently high level
of interest legal issues, it likely deserves its own thread.

It is entitled "Jail a Risk for Vietnam Investors" and is based on a
presumably more detailed report in the Wall Street Journal that requires
subscription to see.  (Would any subscriber want to risk breaching some
copyrights a bit to post a copy here? ;))

Posted Aug 14, 2007, 11:10 am CDT
[to the ABAJournal online; Slogan - "Law news now"
at http://www.abajournal.com/news/jail_a_risk_for_vietnam_investors/ -- ADM]
By Debra Cassens Weiss <http://www.abajournal.com/authors/4>

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<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118702662210596089.html>(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.
-- 
AD (Andi) Marshall
eMail: admarshall at gmail.com
Zone: ICT (IndoChina Time, GMT/UTC+7)
Web: http://admarshall.googlepages.com/
Post: HoChiMinh City (ex/or SaiGon), VietNam
Quote: "Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none..."
Source: Shakespeare, 1623, "All's Well That Ends Well"
Get it at Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2246
GPG/PGP Public Keys online: http://cryptonomicon.mit.edu/
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