Defendant Tran Qui Thanh was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
On April 25, after 3 days of first instance trial, Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced defendants Tran Qui Thanh, Tran Uyen Phuong and Tran Ngoc Bich for the crime of Abuse of trust to appropriate property.
Accordingly, the panel sentenced the defendants: Tran Qui Thanh to 8 years in prison, Tran Uyen Phuong to 4 years in prison, Tran Ngoc Bich to 3 years in prison with a suspended sentence. The panel also sentenced the defendants to pay 100 million VND each to the state budget.
Regarding civil liability, considering the victims' request to cancel the contracts notarized and certified by the competent authorities, the victims to return the money and request to receive back the property. The panel of judges considered that this request of the victims was well-founded and accepted it, at the same time forcing the brokers to return the money received after the transactions between the victims and the defendants.
According to the People's Court, defendant Tran Qui Thanh was the one who directly worked and communicated with the borrower and broker, then informed his two children, Tran Uyen Phuong and Tran Ngoc Bich, so he must bear the main responsibility, followed by Tran Uyen Phuong and Tran Ngoc Bich.
The two parties, the lender and the borrower, agreed that the lender would return the land and shares when the borrower had paid off the principal and interest. However, when the borrower paid, the lender made it difficult for the borrower to return the land and shares for many reasons.
According to the People's Court, the defendants only appropriated property on paper, but in reality the victims are still holding the property.
