Posted on: Sunday, June 8, 2003
Banks sued over money missing in fall of Saigon
By E. Scott Reckard
Los Angeles Times
Most foreign banks had abandoned Saigon by the time helicopters airlifted the last evacuee from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in April 1975.
They left behind a largely unnoticed group of victims of the communist victory — thousands of Vietnamese who were unable to recover money they had deposited in financial institutions such as Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank and the Bank of Tokyo.
Now, 28 years later, more than 20 of those depositors have filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, hoping to reclaim passbook accounts and certificates of deposit that evaporated along with the South Vietnamese regime.
Led by a Vietnamese immigrant with a night school law degree, they are suing five banks, including Chase Manhattan, Citibank parent Citigroup Inc. and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi — financial Goliaths that consistently have denied any obligation to pay.
Alleging fraud and breach of contract among other things, the suit contends that the banks attracted customers to their branches in Vietnam during the war by pledging to honor accounts, no matter what.
Instead, the plaintiffs allege, the banks shut their doors without warning before the communist takeover.
Anxious depositors were turned away when they inquired about their accounts in the weeks immediately before and after the fall of Saigon.
"They just said the bank was closed and everyone had left. There were no new bankers," said Le Dung Thi Nguyen of West Covina, Calif., whose late husband is a plaintiff in the suit, which seeks class-action status for all depositors in similar situations.
Her husband, Huan Tran Dang, an author and former journalist for a South Vietnamese military publication, spent eight years in a communist "re-education" camp before immigrating to the United States. He died recently of liver cancer, leaving his 71-year-old widow to press the claim against Chase for $622.25, plus 28 years' interest.
"He wasn't pursuing it for the money," said Thu-Cuc T. "Tracy" Phung, the depositors' attorney. "But as a journalist he wanted fairness and justice."
Among other things, the suit seeks an accounting of how many thousands of similar small accounts were at the banks — and exactly what happened to the money.
The suit is one in a series of similar claims pursued by Phung, whose offices are in Orange County, Calif.'s Little Saigon.
The bank depositors named in the suit — Vietnamese natives who now live in Orange and Los Angeles counties, except for one in Georgia and one in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon — approached Phung.
Their suit, filed in April, faces significant legal hurdles. In addition to asserting that the deadline lapsed under the statutes of limitations, the banks have argued that their legal obligation to depositors was wiped out by the communists' takeover of operations in Vietnam.
Officials at Chase Manhattan, the bank mentioned by name most often in the 18-page complaint, declined to comment. But in letters to former depositors, including the now-deceased Dang, the bank has made clear its position.
Dang sent a written claim to Chase on Jan. 1, 1993, shortly after his family finally was able to immigrate to Southern California.
A week later, Chase sent back a form letter saying the government-owned central bank of Vietnam "is operating the banking business formerly conducted by private banks."
In addition, the letter cited a New York federal court ruling that claims for money in Chase's Saigon branch must have been made within six years of when it closed.
Attorneys for the depositors maintain that there's no evidence the current government of Vietnam ever assumed the liabilities of any foreign bank.
They also say statute-of-limitations arguments don't apply in the California courts.
