Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai appeared in court

On the morning of September 16, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai, 68 years old, was brought to trial by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City for the crime ofViolations of regulations on management and use of State assets causing damageloss, wasteAccording to Clause 3, Article 219 of the 2015 Penal Code, the penalty is 10-20 years in prison. The trial is expected to last until September 21.

The accused accomplices are Le Thi Thanh Thuy (41 years old, Chairwoman of Hoa Thang Nam Company and Lavenue Investment Joint Stock Company); Dao Anh Kiet (former Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment); Nguyen Hoai Nam (former Secretary of District 2) and Truong Van Ut (former Deputy Head of the Land Management Department, Department of Natural Resources and Environment).

Regarding the case, former Director of Ho Chi Minh City Housing Business Management Company (QLKDN) Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, 61 years old, is wanted, the investigation agency will separate her to handle later.

A series of individuals and groups participated in the trial aspeople with related rights and obligationsare representatives of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Department of Finance; Steering Committee for arrangement and handling of state-owned real estate in Ho Chi Minh City (Steering Committee 09); Management and handling of State-owned real estate; Hoa Thang Nam LLC; Lavenue Investment Joint Stock Company...

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai in 2010, in charge of construction investment and state management. Photo:Vu Mai.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai is the Permanent Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in charge of architectural planning, construction investment, housing management (selling state-owned houses, public houses...) since 2008.

The residential area at 8-12 Le Duan is nearly 5,000 m2 wide.², has three frontages adjacent to the central streets of District 1, leased by the Management Board of Industrial Parks and Services Company to 4 companies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade as headquarters. In 2007, this "golden" land was proposed by Steering Committee 09 (Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Le Hoang Quan as Head of the Committee) to set up procedures for auctioning and transferring land use rights to carry out the project of building a 5-star hotel and part of a commercial center. The requirement is that "the investor implementing the project must have capacity and experience in the hotel sector".

In 2010, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy proposed and was approved by Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai for QLKDN Company to be the project investor, contributing 50%; the rest was contributed by 4 companies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (divided equally for each company at 12.5%). However, immediately after being allowed to participate in the shares, the companies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade transferred the investment rights to a private company to earn a profit of 200 billion VND.

Regarding Le Thi Thanh Thuy, the indictment said that she took advantage of her relationship with Mr. Tai to influence the QLKDN Company to let Hoa Thang Nam Company participate in the project without having to auction the land use rights or bid for the project. Meanwhile, Thuy's company did not have the financial capacity and experience in the field.real estate, restaurants, hotels as required by the city.

The Management Board then established Lavenue Investment Joint Stock Company and proposed that Hoa Thang Nam One Member Co., Ltd. cooperate in investing 30% of the capital (in the 50% capital contribution ratio of the Management Board) to jointly implement the project.

Le Thi Thanh Thuy - Chairwoman of Hoa Thang Nam Company, at the time of her arrest. Photo:Ministry of Public Security

On January 19, 2011, Le Thi Thanh Thuy sent a document to the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Ms. Dao Thi Huong Lan (Director of the Department of Finance, member of Steering Committee 09) and Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Dao Anh Kiet, requesting to apply two forms of land leasing and land allocation.

In June 2011, Mr. Tai signed a decision to allow Lavenue Company to use the entire land to build a luxury hotel, commercial services, and apartments for rent with a land use term of 50 years. The form of use is that the State allocates land with a land use fee at 8 Le Duan and leases the land at 12 Le Duan annually. The total financial obligation that this company must pay to the budget is more than 647 billion VND including value added tax and rent according to market price.

The prosecution determined that Mr. Tai's approval of the two forms of land allocation and land lease for the same project, as well as his approval for Lavenue Company to liquidate house number 12 Le Duan without assigning the competent authority to appraise the remaining value, was against the regulations. Under Mr. Tai's direction, the defendants Dao Anh Kiet, Nguyen Hoai Nam, and Truong Van Ut, despite knowing that the project dossier was incomplete, unapproved, and unappraised, still proposed to sign illegal decisions, leading to the "golden" land being transferred to Thuy's company.

Mr. Tai's wrongdoings were said to be "systemic, occurring over a long period of time, and the main cause of the law violations at the 8-12 Le Duan project." The damage of the case was 2,554 billion VND (land use rights value) minus the 647 billion VND that Lavender Company had previously paid to the budget, leaving 1,927 billion VND.

The prime land at 8-12 Le Duan is still vacant. Photo:Huu Khoa

However, the prosecution also noted that Mr. Tai and the defendants had many mitigating circumstances such as: honest confession; achievements during work, being awarded many medals and certificates of merit; family with contributions to the revolution... Defendant Thuy was considered not honest, but was considered for a reduced sentence because her family had contributed to the revolution.

Before being arrested, former Vice Chairman Nguyen Thanh Tai explained that the reason for approving the plan to hand over this "golden" land plot was to speed up the project's progress according to the city's policy. He himself was "hasty, not fully assessing the bad possibilities that could happen" but "completely not for personal gain".

At that time, the QLKDN Company said that it lacked capital due to allocation to many other projects, did not anticipate the total investment capital estimate to be too large, so it was difficult to meet this project. Faced with the new requirements, he calculated and chose: with 50% of the capital participation of 4 enterprises under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and 20% of the capital contribution of the Housing Business Management Company, the capital contribution of the State sector is 70%.

"Moreover, in the tourism sector, the State does not advocate that state-owned units must hold controlling shares. Therefore, I have approved the proposal of the City Business Management Company," said Mr. Tai.