The defendants at the trial on Tuesday. VIETNAM NEWS AGENCY/VIET NAM NEWS
The Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) People’s Court on December 22 sentenced former Vietnamese transport minister Dinh La Thang to 10 years in prison for violating regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing waste and losses at the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway project, a major toll road in southern Vietnam.
The case involved 20 defendants, including Thang, who served as Minister of Transport between August 2011 and February 2016; and Nguyen Hong Truong, who was Deputy Minister of Transport from April 2007 to August 2017.
Both Thang and Truong were found guilty of “violating regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing waste and losses”, under Article 219 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Also found guilty of the same charge were Nguyen Chi Thanh, former deputy head of the ministry’s Finance Department; Le Trung Cuong, a staff member of the Finance Department; and senior executives of the project’s investor Cuu Long Group – former director-general Duong Tuan Minh, former deputy director-general Duong Thi Tram Anh and former head of the investment and bidding management department Nguyen Thu Trang.
Dinh Ngoc He, alias Ut Troc, former deputy director-general of Thai Son Corp under the Ministry of National Defence, was found guilty of “fraud, appropriation of assets” and “abuse of position and power to influence others for personal gain”.
The other 12 defendants were charged with “fraud, appropriation of assets”.
According to the indictment of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway project was funded by the state budget, so the toll collection rights belong to the state and the money earned from the sale of the rights belongs to the state.
In his capacity as transport minister, Thang created conditions for Ngoc He’s company to win the bidding for the expressway toll collection although Thang was aware that the company was operating at a loss and had no financial capacity.
Ngoc He used falsified documents for the bidding, and after winning it, he continued to commit fraud to appropriate state assets.
Other defendants who were subordinates of Thang violated regulations on bidding to let Ngoc He win the bidding. Their acts created conditions for Ngoc He to appropriate more than 725 billion dong ($31.2 million).
Ngoc He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the charge of “fraud, appropriation of assets” and 13 years for the charge of “abuse of position and power to influence others for personal gain”.
He was required to compensate more than 725 billion dong appropriated from bidding fraud in the HCMC-Trung Luong project.
VIET NAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
