Former Deputy General Director of Vietnam Railways proposed to be sentenced to up to 9 years in prison

On the morning of October 26, the Hanoi People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial to try the case of abusing one's position and power while performing official duties at the Railway Project Management Board, under the Vietnam Railway Corporation (Ministry of Transport).

According to the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy, from September 2009 to February 2014, Pham Hai Bang - Project Manager of "Hanoi Urban Railway Construction (Line 01), Phase 1" directly negotiated with the representative of the contractor JTC (Japanese Transport Consulting Company) to have this contractor support the funds for RPMU to use for purposes related to project implementation. The total amount of money transferred by the employees of the contractor JTC to Bang, Thai and Duy was about 11 billion VND.

All of this money was spent by Bang and his accomplices on contract signing, entertaining guests, meetings, travel, holidays, overtime work, etc. for the benefit of the group, including personal interests. In addition, the defendants also received "envelopes" from Bang, ranging from 30 million to 100 million VND.

When the People's Court questioned the progress of the elevated urban railway project, line 01 (Yen Vien - Ngoc Hoi), defendant Bang stated that after being approved by the authorities, on September 9, 2009, Vietnam Railways Corporation signed a technical consulting service contract with a consortium of eight contractors (abbreviated as JKT), including five foreign enterprises headed by Japan Transport Consulting Company (JTC).

Defendant Bang (top row, left) at the trial.

Next, Vietnam Railway Corporation decided to establish a Steering Committee for project implementation and specialized technical appraisal teams for the Hanoi Urban Railway Construction Project, Line 01, Phase 1. At that time, with the position of Deputy Director of RPMU, Bang was assigned as Project Manager of Railway Line 01.

When the jury questioned him about his behavior of receiving "grease money", defendant Bang evaded by saying that, during the contract negotiation process, RPMU had anticipated many difficulties that would be encountered, such as having to organize meetings, seminars, collect opinions... and discuss with contractors to let them know.

Therefore, the JTC representative wanted to provide financial support to the investor representative. Defendant Bang stated that due to the long time, he could not remember the number of times, the amount and the method of receiving money from the contractors, but only remembered that the total amount of money RPMU received from JTC was about 11 billion VND. Of this amount, Bang received 5 billion VND to spend on project-related matters.

But defendant Bang argued that he did not influence or force JTC, but that the contractor completely voluntarily supported him.

Faced with the defendant Bang’s evasiveness, the panel of judges announced the testimony of several Japanese experts from JTC. Accordingly, a former Japanese expert affirmed: “During the project implementation with RPMU, JTC was repeatedly extorted by Mr. Bang, so even though they did not want to, they still had to give money to Mr. Bang many times.”

At the end of the interrogation, the representative of the Procuracy indicted and proposed sentences for the defendants. Accordingly, defendant Bang was recommended to be sentenced to 11-13 years in prison and forced to pay more than 3.6 billion VND in illegal profits; defendant Thai was recommended to be sentenced to 10-12 years in prison and forced to pay more than 2.8 billion VND in illegal profits; defendant Duy was recommended to be sentenced to 8-10 years in prison and forced to pay more than 2.3 billion VND in illegal profits; defendant Luc was recommended to be sentenced to 6-8 years in prison, with the amount of 100 million VND paid being proposed to be added to the public fund; defendant Dong was recommended to be sentenced to 7-9 years in prison, with the amount of 30 million VND paid being proposed to be added to the public fund; defendant Hieu was recommended to be sentenced to 7-9 years in prison and forced to pay 50 million VND in illegal profits.

In addition, the representative of the Procuracy also requested the Court to seize the assets of the defendants Bang, Thai and Duy to ensure the execution of the judgment. After the representative of the Procuracy argued the charges, the trial moved to the debate phase. On October 27, the trial continued.

The six defendants in the case include: Pham Hai Bang, former Deputy Director of the Railway Project Management Unit (RPMU); Nguyen Nam Thai, former Head of Project Implementation Department 3, RPMU; Tran Van Luc, former Director of RPMU; Tran Quoc Dong, former Director of RPMU, former Deputy General Director of Vietnam Railways Corporation; Nguyen Van Hieu, former Director of RPMU; Pham Quang Duy, former Deputy General Director of RPMU.

According to CAND