Prosecution of former Deputy Head of Representative Office of Van Nghe Newspaper

On the afternoon of April 17, the People's Procuracy of Khanh Hoa province announced that it had served an indictment to prosecute the accused Phung The Dung (born in 1968, residing in Phuoc Long ward, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province), former Deputy Head of the Representative Office of Van Nghe Newspaper in the Central - Central Highlands region (MT-TN), on two charges of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Forgery in work".

Also prosecuted for the two above crimes is former accountant Le Thi My Hon (born in 1989, residing in Ninh Thuy ward, Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa province).

According to the indictment, in mid-June 2016, Dong A - Nha Trang Commercial Joint Stock Bank signed a cooperation agreement with the Van Nghe Newspaper's representative office at MT-TN to provide consumer loans in installments in the form of unsecured loans to officers and employees.

Taking advantage of this opportunity and the assigned authority, within 3 months (June 2016 - September 2016), Phung The Dung and Le Thi My Hon created fake profiles for 24 outsiders to borrow money. Among them, there were people who needed to borrow money, but had to raise the loan amount higher than needed so that Dung could receive the difference in loan amount, and some people only registered to borrow money to help Dung.

Phung The Dung at the criminal appeal trial of Phu Yen Provincial People's Court on November 2, 2021.

Dung directed accountant Hon to "draw" up a number of fake documents (labor contracts, salary increase decisions, salary statements) for Dung to sign and stamp as Deputy Head of the Van Nghe Newspaper Representative Office at MT-TN.

According to the investigation results, from the end of June 2016 to the beginning of September 2016, Dong A - Nha Trang Commercial Joint Stock Bank approved 24 "officers and employees" of the Van Nghe Newspaper Representative Office at MT-TN to borrow more than 2.1 billion VND. Of this total amount, Dung took more than 1.2 billion VND, the remaining 910 million VND was given to those in need of loans.

By mid-July 2021, the total amount of money Dung still owed to Dong A Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Nha Trang was nearly 1.6 billion VND, including more than 1 billion VND in principal and nearly 600 million VND in interest and overdue interest.

Phung The Dung while being prosecuted and temporarily detained for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" in Phu Yen in mid-March 2020.

Previously, in mid-March 2020, Dung was caught red-handed by Song Cau Town Police (Phu Yen) while defrauding a resident of 60 million VND. Investigation results showed that the total amount of money Dung defrauded and appropriated from 7 residents in Xuan Hai Commune, Song Cau Town was 432 million VND by falsely promising to make "red books" and change land use purposes.

At the appeal hearing on November 2, 2021, the People's Court of Phu Yen province sentenced defendant Phung The Dung to 6 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property". To date, this subject is still serving his sentence at the Ministry of Public Security's Detention Center.