Group of officials who violated the O Du ethnic socio-economic development project were sentenced

On November 19, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Luong Thanh Hai (born 1962), former Head of Nghe An Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, for the crime of“Lack of responsibility causes serious consequences”.

The defendants Kim Van Bon (born in 1982), former officer of the Policy Department of the Ethnic Minorities Committee of Nghe An province; Nguyen Tam Long (born in 1974), former acting Head of the Policy Department; Chu Thi Thuy Khanh (born in 1974), former Accountant of the Ethnic Minorities Committee; the defendants Le Van Son (born in 1962) and Nguyen Dinh Thinh (born in 1981), Director and Deputy Director of Van Son Construction Company, were all prosecuted for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".

Defendant Kim Van Bon and defendant Nguyen Tam Long. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the indictment, while performing assigned tasks in the Project to support the socio-economic development of the O Du ethnic group in Nghe An province for package No. 1 (approved for a budget of 2.7 billion VND), Kim Van Bon created fake documents, inflated the volume of items to pay more than 1.3 billion VND.

Kim Van Bon discussed with Nguyen Tam Long and agreed not to deposit this money into the fund, not to record this amount in the accounting books, but to create a balance sheet of revenue and expenditure and plan to divide this amount among the leaders and staff of the Ethnic Committee. The actions of Long and Bon caused a loss of more than 1.3 billion VND to the State budget.

During the investigation, Bon and Long stated that they had given Mr. Luong Thanh Hai 500 million VND, the two defendants themselves received 200 million VND each, and the remaining amount was divided among other individuals or departments. However, during the investigation, Mr. Luong Thanh Hai and others did not admit to receiving money from Long and Bon, so there was not enough basis for consideration.

Defendants at trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Regarding the purchase of a tractor worth 224 million VND, instead of buying a Japanese-made tractor, the two defendants Son and Thinh created a file to buy a Thai-made tractor to accept the project, even though in reality there was no tractor to hand over to the beneficiary unit.

At the trial, the defendants all admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendants' cooperation during the investigation, their honest confessions, and many of their achievements during their work... The defendants' having remedied all the consequences they caused were mitigating circumstances.

Considering the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel sentenced defendant Nguyen Tam Long to 5 years in prison; defendant Kim Van Bon to 4 years in prison; Luong Thanh Hai to 3 years in prison with a suspended sentence; Le Van Son to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence; and the two defendants Nguyen Dinh Thinh and Chu Thi Thuy Khanh each to 15 months in prison with a suspended sentence.