Jail sentences proposed for former leaders of southern province

Hanoi (VNA) – Former Secretary of the Party Committee of Binh Duong southern province Tran Van Nam and former Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Tran Thanh Liem are facing prison sentences of 9-10 years for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”.  

The Hanoi People’s Court opened a trial on August 15 for 28 individuals, including Nam and Liem, in a case involving land management and regulation violations in the southern province.

Eleven other former officials and leaders of the locality are also on trial. They were prosecuted by the Supreme People’s Procuracy on the same charge in line with Article 219, Clause 3 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Among the remaining 15, who once worked or are working for import-export and real estate firms in Binh Duong, three are also charged with “property embezzlement” along with the abovementioned charge.

According to the indictment, Nam, also known as Tran Quoc Tuan, who was Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the People’s Committee of Binh Duong from July 2010 to December 2015, and Secretary of the provincial Party Committee in the 2015-2020 tenure; Tran Thanh Liem, who was  Chairman of the People’s Committee from October 2015 to October 2020; Pham Van Canh, who was Standing Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee from December 2013 to November 2018; and Nguyen Van Minh, Chairman of the Council of Members and General Director of Binh Duong Producing and Trading Corporation (Protrade Corp) from August 2010 to June 2017,  deliberately violated regulations on capital and asset management, causing huge losses to the State.

Specifically, although Nam knew that the proposal to apply the average land price in 2006 to collect fees under land allocation regulations in 2012 and 2013 was illegal, he still issued a document on land use fee collection from Protrade Corp, causing a loss of more than 716 billion VND (30.6 million USD) to the State.

Other former provincial leaders knew that the transfer of 43 hectares of land and the State's 30% stake in Tan Phu Company to individuals known by Minh and his accomplices was unlawful. However, they still approved procedures to enable Minh to complete the transfer of State assets to a company founded by his son-in-law and sold to another private company, causing a loss of nearly 985 billion VND.

The defendants also breached the rule when failing to verify the value of a 145ha lot during the process of equitisation, enabling Minh and other accomplices to cause a loss of over 4.03 trillion VND to the State.

The indictment said Nam must bear the main responsibility for his wrong decisions and instructions that resulted in heavy damage to the State asset, while Minh is the culprit.  

Minh will spend 14-15 years behind bars for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness” and 15-16 years for “property embezzlement”.

Tran Nguyen Vu, General Director of Binh Duong Corporation, and Huynh Thanh Hai, Chairman of the Board of Members of Binh Duong Project Investment and Management Company Limited, and former member of the Board of Members and Deputy Director of Protrade Corp, were both charged with “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness” and “property embezzlement.” They are expected to get combined jail terms of 24-26 years, and 21-23 years, respectively.

Prison sentences ranging from three to nine years were proposed for the other defendants./.