Former senior Party official of HCM City brought to trial

Defendants Tat Thanh Cang (front, right) and Te Chi Dung (front, left) at the trial opened on December 27. (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) – Former Standing Vice Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Tat Thanh Cang was brought to trial on December 27 on the charge of “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”.

He is one of the 20 defendants standing trial in this case.

In the case, Tat Thanh Cang, Pham Van Thong (former Deputy Chief of the Office of the municipal Party Committee), and some other defendants holing key leadership positions of HCM City, the Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Co. Ltd (IPC), and the South Saigon Development JSC (SADECO) were assigned to manage the State’s assets and carry out the State’s regulations on the presentation of State capital at enterprises.

However, driven by different motives and purposes, under Cang’s leadership and decision-making role, the defendants committed an array of violations in the transfer of 9 million shares of SADECO to the Nguyen Kim company without bidding and assessment by an organisation specialised in price appraisal.

Those wrongdoings led to losses of over 669.6 billion VND (29.3 million USD at the current exchange rate) to the State.

Te Chi Dung (former General Director of the IPC and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SADECO), Ho Thi Thanh Phuc (former General Director of SADECO), and their accomplices abused their authority in managing remuneration and rewards at SADECO to make deceits to illegally spend the money that this company should have paid to the municipal Party Committee’s Office and the IPC. They appropriated more than 4.6 billion VND.

Dung also ordered Phuc and other accessories to spend SADECO’s money on foreign trips by many individuals in the name of “fact-finding tours”, causing losses of over 2.1 billion VND to the State.

The HCM City People’s Procuracy prosecuted Cang and 11 other defendants for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”. 

Meanwhile, Dung, Phuc, and five others faced the two charges of “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness” and “embezzling assets”. Nguyen Van Minh, former Chairman of the IPC Members’ Council, was accused of “embezzling assets”.

The trial, heard by the HCM City People’s Court, is scheduled to last until January 10, 2022./.

VNA