Procuracy proposes upholding first-instance sentences for defendants in Sabeco case

Former minister of industry and trade Vu Huy Hoang at the court (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The High-Level People’s Procuracy in Hanoi on January 21 suggested upholding the first-instance trial's sentences for four defendants in the case that occurred at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage JSC (Sabeco) and Ho Chi Minh City.

They included former Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, former Director of the MoIT’s Department of Light Industry Phan Chi Dung, former Deputy Director of HCM City's Department of Planning and Investment Lam Nguyen Khoi, and former head of the department's Infrastructure Development Division Le Quang Minh.

Earlier, at the instance trial, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Hoang to 11 years’ imprisonment and Dung to nine years in prison for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”.

Khoi got a jail term of four and a half years, while Minh received a prison sentence of three and a half years for “violating regulations on land management.”

According to the indictment from the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Sabeco, which is under the MoIT’s management, was given more than 6,000 sq.m of land at No. 2-4-6 on Hai Ba Trung street in downtown HCM City for production and business purposes.

However, Hoang, Dung, and former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa, who has fled, directed subordinates at the ministry and Sabeco to carry out procedures for using land use rights and Sabeco's money as capital contributions to set up Sabeco Pearl, a joint venture between Sabeco and a number of private enterprises, to implement a project building a hotel, a trade and convention centre, and office space for lease on the land plot.

After Sabeco completed legal procedures for the joint venture’s investment and proposed the HCM City People’s Committee approve the addition of officetel and housing functions to this project, the MoIT ordered the company to divest its entire stake in this project.

The move was illegal and resulted in the loss of over 2.7 trillion VND to the State./.