Embezzling 1.4 billion VND from the people, a commune cadastral officer received 18 years in prison.
As a commune land officer, Mr. Son abused his authority to force people to pay land application fees that he himself imposed. Over the course of 10 years, Mr. Son appropriated a total of 1.4 billion VND from 65 households.
On October 25, the High People's Court in Da Nang opened an appeal trial of defendant Nguyen Ngoc Son - former cadastral officer of the People's Committee of Hoan Trach commune (Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province), for the crime of abusing his position and power to appropriate property.
According to the indictment, from 2006 to April 2016, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son was a land and construction official of the People's Committee of Hoan Trach Commune. During his work, Mr. Son took advantage of his duties and authority to arbitrarily require households applying for land to pay fees according to each land location that he himself set (fees higher than those prescribed by the State).
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| Defendant Nguyen Ngoc Son in the first instance trial. |
By this method, Mr. Son directly received from 65 households a total amount of more than 1.6 billion VND. Of which, Mr. Son paid more than 200 million VND to the State budget, and Mr. Son embezzled the remaining amount of more than 1.4 billion VND.
In the first instance trial, Nguyen Ngoc Son was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the People's Court of Quang Binh Province. Afterwards, the High People's Procuracy in Da Nang also issued a decision to appeal, requesting the High People's Court in Da Nang to review the appeal and annul the first instance criminal judgment of the People's Court of Quang Binh Province for reinvestigation.
Regarding this case, the authorities have also initiated a supplementary investigation against Mr. Hoang Van Duc - former Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoan Trach Commune (the person who is believed to be behind the direction of Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son's criminal acts and received more than 803 million VND from Mr. Son), with the charges of "Abusing position and power to appropriate property", "Violating regulations on land management"; initiated a supplementary investigation against Nguyen Ngoc Son for the crime of "Violating regulations on land management".
At the appeal court, the panel of judges partially accepted Nguyen Ngoc Son's appeal for a reduced sentence. At the same time, they partially accepted the appeal of the High People's Procuracy in Da Nang to initiate additional investigations into new charges against Nguyen Ngoc Son, Hoang Van Duc and related officials of Hoan Trach commune.
At the end of the trial, the panel sentenced Nguyen Ngoc Son to 18 years in prison, a reduction of 2 years compared to the first instance sentence. At the same time, they decided to initiate a new criminal case on charges of "Violating regulations on land management" and "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences" against Nguyen Ngoc Son, Hoang Van Duc and a number of related officials of the People's Committee of Hoan Trach commune.