A local court in Vietnam on Thursday handed down an imprisonment sentence of 20 years on a Taiwanese businessman on the charge of swindling.

According to the verdict passed by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, the 55-year-old businessman named Hoang Wan Hui and his accomplices appropriated 700,000 US dollars of another Taiwanese businessman, local newspaper Youth reported Friday.

In 1998, Hoang Wan Hui signed a deal with Hoang Wan Kuang, pledging to transfer him the ownership of workshops and land plots in Vietnam. In return, Hoang Wan Kuang paid 700,000 dollars to Hoang Wan Hui's debtor. However, the latter has not fulfilled the deal.

Two Vietnamese people, who, along with Hoang Wan Hui, set up a company in Ho Chi Minh City in 1992, were sentenced to a total of 22 years in jail for having been involved in the case.