​To be tried the former Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development

The Hanoi People's Court announced that on December 6, it will open the first-instance trial of former Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Phan Minh Nguyet and five other defendants.

The six defendants were charged with the following crimes: Embezzlement of property (Article 278 of the Penal Code), Abuse of position and power while performing official duties (Article 281 of the Penal Code), and Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences (Article 165 of the Penal Code).

The trial is scheduled to last two days. The jury consists of five people, two judges and three people's assessors.

Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court of Hanoi People's Court, Ngo Thi Anh, presided over the trial.

Prosecutor Tran Khac Loi, Deputy Head of the Department of Prosecution and Investigation Supervision, Supervision of First Instance Trials of Corruption and Position Cases (Department 5) of the Hanoi People's Procuracy, practices the right to prosecute before the Court.

​To appear in court in this case are the defendants Phan Minh Nguyet, former Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Nguyen Thi Huyen Hao, chief accountant of Hanoi Agricultural Investment and Development One Member Limited Liability Company (HADICO), both prosecuted for two crimes: "Embezzlement of property" and "Abuse of position and power while performing official duties."

Defendants Dang Thi Thanh Tam, Director of Tu Liem Tourist Fruit Garden Enterprise; Do Van Hao, Deputy General Director of HADICO; Duong Thi Chinh, in charge of accounting of Tu Liem Tourist Fruit Garden Enterprise, were all prosecuted for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties."

Defendant Nguyen Trong Hung, Director of Bac Ha Enterprise, under HADICO, was prosecuted for "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences."

According to the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy, defendant Phan Minh Nguyet was the former Chairman of the Board of Members and General Director of HADICO during the period 2005-2014. In January 2014, defendant Nguyet was appointed Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. During her tenure at HADICO, defendant Nguyet directed her subordinates to commit a series of violations.

Tu Liem Tourist Fruit Garden Enterprise, a branch of HADICO, was assigned more than 400,000m2 of land, including 370,000m2 of Thanh Nien Fruit Garden, Hanoi Botanical Garden and 33,000m2 of internal roads and canals. The land use term is long-term.

In December 2011, Dang Thi Thanh Tam, Director of the Enterprise, submitted a proposal to "renovate" part of the land and received approval from Phan Minh Nguyet. The Enterprise demolished the old warehouse on the 8,400m2 plot of land, built 14 new kiosks and 114 level 4 houses for rent to staff using capital mobilized by the Enterprise.

Phan Minh Nguyet discussed with Do Van Hao and defendant Tam to collect 500 million VND/room from the tenants, for a period of 15 years. In total, there were 100 rooms signed for rent and collected from 138 people, the total amount was 46.8 billion VND.

In addition, from the above rental income, HADICO also received 239 million VND outside the contract. Phan Minh Nguyet assigned Nguyen Thi Huyen Hao, chief accountant of HADICO Company, to manage but left it off the books.

The indictment determined that Phan Minh Nguyet had taken advantage of his position and power to demolish and build houses for rent. This action violated the provisions of the Land Law and the Construction Law in order to create illegal income for use, causing serious consequences.

Regarding the implementation of HADICO's internal projects, in two years (2010-2011), the company invested in many projects, including the project to invest in building a facility applying high technology in flower preservation production to serve the development of Tay Tuu flower region, the project to build fences at Tu Liem Tourist Fruit Garden Enterprise...

Defendant Nguyet directed employees to advance nearly 37 billion VND from the revenue of these projects, but about 19 billion VND of that was used by defendant Nguyet for personal purposes.

In the crime of “Embezzlement of property,” Phan Minh Nguyet was identified as the mastermind, and Nguyen Thi Huyen Hao, chief accountant of HADICO Company, was an accomplice.

According to the prosecution, from late 2009 to 2014, Phan Minh Nguyet directed Nguyen Thi Huyen Hao, Director of member enterprises and subordinates to create fake documents, withdraw money from HADICO's production and price stabilization funds and give it to defendant Nguyet. The total amount of money that subordinates withdrew from the company and gave to Phan Minh Nguyet was more than 40 billion VND.

To avoid detection, Phan Minh Nguyet directed her subordinates to sign a fake bank loan contract of 19 billion VND, and used the money to pay HADICO in advance. After that, defendant Nguyet used her personal money and the money left off the books to pay back nearly 26 billion VND to the company.

Defendant Phan Minh Nguyet was accused by the Procuracy of embezzling nearly 15 billion VND from HADICO (to date, defendant Nguyet's family has fully recovered).

Currently, HADICO Company only has a loss of nearly 1.9 billion VND in interest arising from the 19 billion VND loan from the bank./.

According to Vietnam+