Former Da Nang leaders jailed for land management violations

 

 

Hanoi (VNA) - The Hanoi People’s Court on January 13 handed jail sentences to 21 defendants found guilty of “violating regulations on managing and using State assets, causing losses and wastefulness” and “violating land management regulations”.

Accordingly, former Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee Tran Van Minh faced 12 years in prison for violating regulations on managing and using State assets, causing losses and wastefulness, and five years for violating land management regulations.

Another former Chairman of the committee, Van Huu Chien, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on the same charges.

Phan Van Anh Vu, former Chairman of the 79 Construction JSC and Bac Nam 79 JSC, received a 30-year imprisonment sentence.

 

According to the indictment, Minh and Chien held key leading positions of Da Nang city and were in charge of State property management, use and land management.

The two defendants violated laws and ordered their staff to complete procedures of selling State-owned buildings and illegally transferring land lots to Vu. These actions were “repeated for many times in a long period”.
 
With the help of the two former chairmen and other leading officials who signed and followed the orders, Vu was able to acquire various State-owned buildings and land lots located in prime locations at a much lower price or without auction from 2006 to 2014.

Their actions caused losses of more than 22 trillion VND (947.5 million USD) to the State.

Between 2002 and 2017, Vu used his own name and those of his relatives to establish, contribute capital to and directly manage five real estate companies, aiming to purchase many property projects as well as public houses and land lots in Da Nang without auctions, at prices lower than those set by the municipal People’s Committee, personally pocketing a specially huge amount of money./.