Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung defends against accusations of personal gain in purchasing Redoxy 3C

On June 20, the High People's Court in Hanoi is scheduled to open an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of former Hanoi People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung in the case of purchasing Redoxy-3C to clean up rivers and lakes. Mr. Chung claimed his innocence and appealed the first instance verdict of 8 years in prison for the crime ofTaking advantage of position and power while performing official duties.

From prison, Mr. Chung sent a 106-page handwritten petition explaining the appeal issues to the High People's Court in Hanoi.

Accordingly, he said that rivers and lakes in Hanoi have been seriously polluted for many years, affecting people's health and hindering the economic development of the capital.

Before the Redoxy-3C trial, the city had never allocated budget for mass treatment of rivers and lakes. Between 2009 and 2013, Hanoi selected nine types of products to use at different stages in the same process of treating polluted lake water.

"Since 2016, I have treated the lakes and maintained water quality using only one product, Redoxy 3C. Previously, it took 20 days to clean the water, but now it only takes 24 hours. That is an objective truth, but unfortunately, it has not been recognized by the prosecuting agencies," Mr. Chung wrote.

The former chairman of Hanoi explained that from 2016 to 2020, as the head of the city, he invited more than 200 experts and business managers from many fields around the world to the capital. The result of this was the "birth of Redoxy 3C" - a product not only used to treat lake water pollution but also used to treat domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater, sludge and even solid waste...

Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung at the first instance court. Photo:VNA

According to Mr. Chung, the fact that Watch Water Company (Germany) reduced the price of Redoxy 3C twice helped the Hanoi People's Committee and Hanoi Drainage Company Limited benefit more than 50 billion VND. However, this issue was not recognized by the authorities.

At that time, he assigned Vice Chairman of the City Nguyen The Hung to negotiate with Watch Water Company to make Hanoi the exclusive agent for Redoxy 3C. He planned that when the city implemented the lake water pollution treatment project, Hanoi Drainage One Member Co., Ltd. or the German Company would prepare bidding documents to sell chemicals to the Hanoi People's Committee. Mr. Chung explained that he did so because the Bidding Law did not allow the city to directly purchase goods and materials from foreign enterprises.

Admitting that "there was a mistake in the procedure for purchasing Redoxy 3C," he asserted that this did not cause damage to the city and even brought in more profit than usual.

Regarding the accusation of letting a "family company" buy the product, Mr. Chung explained that his family opened a limited liability company in 1996 with tens of thousands of products and more than 100 employees. His son is also over 18 years old, a citizen living independently with his wife and husband, so he has full rights to do business according to the law. The fact that the prosecution agencies "only looked at the charter capital registered to establish the enterprise to accuse him is incorrect".

Mr. Chung gave an example, if his son is the legal representative of Arktic Company to do business with Redoxy 3C, the units that need to come to make a purchase transaction, they only know how to buy and sell. Meanwhile, the Law on Bidding does not allow state agencies to buy directly from Watch Water Company. Therefore, he objected to the prosecution agency linking his son's business to his father's "political motive".

Redoxy-3C powder preparation, easily soluble in water. Photo:Phuong Son

In this case, in addition to Mr. Chung, there are also Nguyen Truong Giang, former Director of Arktic Trading and Service Company Limited and Vo Tien Hung, former General Director of Hanoi Drainage Company Limited. Giang was sentenced by the first instance court to 4 years and 6 months in prison, Mr. Hung received 4 years in prison for the same crime.Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties.

The first instance verdict determined that Mr. Chung, as the head of the city, had asked Watch Water Company (Germany) to research the Redoxy-3C product. He wanted this product to be exclusive to the city, and Watch Water then agreed to sell it at a "preferential" price of 8.5 euros per kilogram.

After testing the first 100 kg of the product, Mr. Chung verbally instructed General Director Vo Tien Hung to "purchase the Redoxy-3C product through Arktic Company". This company was established by Mr. Chung's wife, contributing 5 billion VND, but Giang and another person were the owners.

The former City Chairman issued a notice of negotiations to exclusively purchase the product from Germany, but instructed Mr. Hung not to buy it directly at a preferential price, but to buy it through Arktic.

From 2016 to 2019, under the direction and facilitation of Mr. Chung, Arktic imported more than 489,000 kg of Redoxy-3C at a cost of more than 115 billion VND. Arktic resold it to Hanoi Drainage Company Limited for more than 151 billion VND. The roundabout trading behavior of the two companies caused Hanoi to suffer a loss of 36.1 billion VND.

After the first instance trial, Giang asked for a reduced sentence. Mr. Hung did not appeal.

This is the third case of Mr. Chung being tried. In December 2020, the former Chairman of Hanoi was sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Hanoi People's Court for the crime ofAppropriation of state secret documentsand a year later, he received another three years in prison forTaking advantage of position and power while performing official dutiesin the case involving Nhat Cuong.

In three cases, Mr. Chung did not appeal the sentence for appropriating confidential documents, the remaining two cases he pleaded innocent and are both preparing for appeal.