Defendant Nguyen Thanh Tai, former Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, at the trial (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – NguyenThanh Tai, former Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, on September 20 was sentenced to eight years in prison for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets,causing losses and wastefulness”.
The verdict for Tai and fouraccomplices was announced by the municipal People’s Court.
According to the jury, the landplot at No. 8-12 Le Duan Street in District 1, covering a total area of over4,800 sq. m., is owned by the State and assigned to the HCM City HousingManagement and Trading Company for management and leased out to four companiessubordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. On November 20, 2007, themunicipal People’s Committee approved the construction of a hotel and part of acommercial centre there.
The HCM City HousingManagement and Trading Company, with the currently wanted Nguyen Thi Thu Thuybeing the director, proposed the municipal People’s Committee permit it to setup a new legal entity in the form of a joint stock company and to mobilise othercapital sources to implement the project. This proposal was accepted by Tai as a Vice Chairman of the committee.
Taking advantage of her personalrelationship with Tai, Le Thi Thanh Thuy, who was then Chairwoman of the HoaThang Nam One-Member Limited Company, suggested the HCM City Housing Managementand Trading Company allow her business to take part in this project.
After that, Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy signeda document introducing the Hoa Thang Nam company to the project, which wasapproved by Tai without assigning a specialised agency to verifythis firm’s experience and financial capacity.
The four companies under theMinistry of Industry and Trade, which were renting land at the plot, agreed with the Kinh Do Investment Co. Ltd to establish a newlegal entity which was the Lavenue Investment JSC and let Le Thi Thanh Thuy actas Chairwoman of its board of directors.
Later, those companies transferredtheir shares, putting the land plot into privateownership, thus causing a loss of over 1.927 trillion VND (83.1 million USD atthe current exchange rate) to the State.
The jury concluded that Le ThiThanh Thuy incited Tai so as to profit from the documents signedby him. Meanwhile, Dao Anh Kiet (former Director of the municipal Department ofNatural Resources and Environment), Nguyen Hoai Nam (former Secretary of theParty Committee of District 2), and Truong Van Ut (former deputy head of the landmanagement section at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment) knewthat the project’s dossier was insufficient and hadn’t been approved orverified but still proposed the approval of decisions that ran counter to legalregulations.
At the trial, Le Thi Thanh Thuy was given a five-yearjail term, Kiet five years (total penalty is 11 years and six months,including the sentence in a previous case), Nam four years, and Ut three years (total penalty is eight years, including the sentencein a previous case) also for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets,causing losses and wastefulness”.
Besides, the jury assigned the HCMCity People’s Committee to revoke all the land use right certificates and otherpapers related to the land plot previously grantedto the Lavenue company.
It also decided that the fivedefendants have to compensate over 4.7 billion VND for the loss. The moneythe Hoa Thang Nam company used to make capital contribution to the Lavenuecompany will also be confiscated./.
VNA
