A local land administration official turned himself in and confessed to accepting bribes.

Doan Thanh Tuan (born in 1985, residing in Quarter 4, An Thoi Ward, Phu Quoc City) is a land administration official in Cua Duong commune, responsible for inspecting and handling violations in the field of land use within the commune.

According to Mr. Tuan's confession, in 2021 and 2022, a group of people from LHD Investment and Development Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as LHD Company) carried out land leveling and concrete road construction on agricultural land plots to illegally subdivide and sell land in the K8 Project Area (a "phantom" project, not real, created by the individuals themselves - PV). They contacted and met with Mr. Tuan and gave him a total of 50 million VND in cash to ask for his help in turning a blind eye or overlooking the violations of the group.

After receiving the money, Mr. Tuan turned a blind eye to several violations committed by the group from LHD Company in order to facilitate the illegal subdivision and sale of land plots.

Through news reports, Mr. Tuan learned that a group of people from LHD Company had been prosecuted and temporarily detained by the Criminal Investigation Agency of Phu Quoc City Police for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property." Knowing that his acceptance of money to overlook violations for the LHD Company group would result in criminal prosecution, Mr. Tuan voluntarily surrendered to the Phu Quoc City Police and returned the entire sum of 50 million VND, hoping for leniency from the law.

As previously reported, the Phu Quoc City Police have launched a special investigation into land-related fraud occurring within the city. On April 19th, the Phu Quoc City Police Investigation Agency arrested and detained Dang Van Linh (born in 1985), Le Minh Diep (born in 1991, both residing in Le Bat Hamlet, Cua Can Commune, Phu Quoc City, Kien Giang Province), and Dang Van Hung (born in 1981, residing in Cay Thong Ngoai Hamlet, Cua Duong Commune, Phu Quoc City, Kien Giang Province) on charges of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

In November 2021, Diep, along with Linh and Hung, jointly established LHD Company, specializing in real estate brokerage and business consulting. Diep served as the company director, while Linh and Hung were members. The company's office was located at 268 Nguyen Trung Truc Street, Ward 2, Duong Dong Commune, Phu Quoc City, and displayed the sign: LHD Real Estate Office.

From 2021 to 2022, Diep, Linh, and Hung proceeded to place deposits to purchase land or buy plots of land from many people in Cay Thong Trong hamlet, Cua Duong commune and Hamlet 3, Cua Can commune (Phu Quoc City), in addition to encroaching on stream land and special-use forest land outside the designated areas.

Subsequently, the individuals illegally leveled the land, built concrete roads, erected utility poles, and laid power lines on the plots. They then hired people to create fictitious land subdivision plans on paper, naming them the K8 Residential Area Project and the Cua Can Residential Area Project (both fictitious projects that did not exist)... and proceeded to introduce, advertise, and sell the land plots to customers through notarized agreements at bailiff offices in Phu Quoc City, aiming to gain illicit profits.

At the time of subdividing and selling land plots to customers, in addition to plots with land use rights certificates for perennial crop land, there was also land without land use rights certificates, including stream land and special-use forest land managed by the State and Phu Quoc National Park.

The suspects subdivided and sold thousands of plots of land to hundreds of customers, embezzling hundreds of billions of VND. Through investigation, it was determined that the accounts of Linh, Diep, and Hung showed fluctuations in balances and debts totaling over 1,000 billion VND in 2021 and 2022, with the main transactions being land sales.

The case is being further investigated and processed by the Criminal Investigation Agency of Phu Quoc City Police, involving all related individuals.

The Phu Quoc City Police Department requests that anyone who is a victim of the aforementioned group of suspects contact the Criminal Investigation Department of the Phu Quoc City Police Department for guidance and handling of the case according to regulations. At the same time, the Phu Quoc City Police Department calls on all individuals involved in the case to immediately surrender to the police and truthfully confess to receive leniency from the law.