Vice Chairman of the Ward Greedily Embezzled Pension Money of Officials

While working as a social worker for the war invalids of Binh Da Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai, Mr. Suu falsified documents to appropriate many years of pensions from others. Undetected, Mr. Suu was promoted to Vice Chairman of the Ward. With his new position and new power, Mr. Suu continued to appropriate hundreds of millions of dong from retirees.

Defendant Suu in court.

Seizing hundreds of millions of pensions

The case involved many people, but lasted for many years, some died of old age, some died in accidents, or the statute of limitations expired and they could not be summoned for investigation. In the end, only Mr. Suu was brought to trial. Recently, the People's Court of Dong Nai province opened a first-instance trial and sentenced defendant Nguyen Manh Suu (54 years old, former Vice Chairman of Binh Da Ward People's Committee, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai) to 13 years in prison for the crime of abusing his position and power to appropriate property.

According to the investigation results, during his time as Vice Chairman of the Ward People's Committee (March 2005 - July 2013), defendant Suu appropriated more than 310 million VND.

According to the indictment, during his time as a war invalids and social affairs officer in Binh Da Ward (from October 2004 to February 2005), defendant Suu appropriated Mr. Do Van Khau's pension of more than 5.5 million VND by falsifying documents. In March 2005, defendant Suu was appointed as Vice Chairman of Binh Da Ward People's Committee, and his work was assigned to someone else. However, in that month, Mr. Suu still signed to receive Mr. Khau's pension and appropriated it, even after Mr. Khau had passed away (October 2006) and was no longer entitled to receive the ward's pension and insurance benefits.

Regarding this case, the police investigation agency also clarified two other related people: Mr. Le Van Trung (58 years old, residing in Bien Hoa City, former colonel, working at the Political Department of the Provincial Military Command, retired) and Mr. Nguyen Ba Hieu (55 years old, former officer of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, later worked at the Provincial Social Insurance, title of Head of Inspection Department).

Specifically, these two people colluded to erase and falsify many retirement records of officials to carry out procedures for paying fictitious pensions, including the records of Mr. Do Van Khau, embezzling state budget money, and dividing it among themselves. However, because Mr. Hieu had passed away (on March 6, 2015, he fell from a high floor at the office to the ground and died), there was no basis to confirm Mr. Trung's testimony. On the other hand, Mr. Trung's wrongdoings committed from 1990 to now have expired the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, so the investigation agency did not prosecute Mr. Trung.

In addition, defendant Suu also received the pension of Mr. Cao Hong Dinh (73 years old, former officer of the Dong Nai Province Military Command) from December 1988 to July 2013 with an amount of more than 280 million VND. Defendant Suu later returned this amount, so he was not prosecuted.

Is there collusion of social insurance officials?

At the trial, Mr. Suu pleaded guilty, but he said that he would not have been able to carry out the appropriation without the collusion of a social insurance officer of Bien Hoa City. According to Mr. Suu's testimony, he and Mr. Nguyen Minh Hung (53 years old, social insurance specialist of Bien Hoa City, deceased) colluded to receive Mr. Do Van Khau's pension and divide it among themselves at the ratio: Suu 4 parts, Hung 6 parts.

At the trial, the defense attorney for defendant Suu argued that defendant Suu must have had Mr. Hung's help for defendant Suu to have embezzled money so easily and for so many years, so prosecuting only Mr. Suu alone was unreasonable and would have let the criminals escape.

Defendant Suu also stated that the embezzled money was divided among Mr. Hung at a ratio of 4-6. However, when dividing and giving the money, out of respect, he did not make any paperwork, but only wrote it down in a notebook to remember.

Meanwhile, the representative of the People's Procuracy at the same level said that during the process of taking statements, the police used many professional measures, even had both sides confront each other, but Mr. Hung still claimed that he did not collude nor did he receive money from Mr. Suu. As for the notebook written by the defendant, it did not have Mr. Hung's signature, so it could not be considered evidence.

"If the defendant can provide evidence proving that Mr. Hung colluded, the panel of judges will be asked to postpone the trial and withdraw the case file to request the police to conduct additional investigation," the representative of the People's Procuracy added.

According to Minh Chau/Laodong