Prosecution of General Director of Phat An Gia Company for selling "ghost projects", embezzling more than 134 billion VND
The defendants Hoang Manh Cuong, Hoang Thi Hong, and Nguyen Thi Hoa were prosecuted for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
On May 28, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy issued an indictment on the case of selling "ghost projects" that occurred at Phat An Gia Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company (Phat An Gia Company), prosecuting the defendants Hoang Manh Cuong (residing in Thu Duc City, General Director of Phat An Gia Company); Hoang Thi Hong (residing in Binh Thanh District); Nguyen Thi Hoa (residing in Tan Binh District) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property”.
According to the indictment, from 2018 to 2019, defendant Hoang Manh Cuong did not submit an application for a construction investment license, and was not granted a license by competent authorities to establish projects, divide plots, and separate plots at the projects: Central House residential area on Road 4, residential area on Road 8, Long Phuoc residential area (also known as residential area 272 Long Phuoc - Long Thuan), Vo Van Hat residential area, Truong Luu residential area, Go Cat residential area (Thu Duc City).
However, defendant Hoang Manh Cuong still named the project himself, created the plot division drawings himself, falsely advertised "ghost projects", and propagated the scale of the company's business activities to create trust from customers.
Then, defendant Hoang Manh Cuong used the legal entities Phat An Gia Real Estate Joint Stock Company and Phat An Gia Company (both owned by Cuong) to sign contracts promising to transfer and accepting transfers, transfer deposit contracts... with 140 plots of land for 115 customers and collected more than 144 billion VND to appropriate.
The defendant Cuong sold these plots of land to others and mortgaged them at the bank, and has so far been unable to remedy the consequences. The defendant Cuong must be held responsible for the amount of money he embezzled, more than 134 billion VND, as the mastermind in organizing the implementation.
The indictment also determined that defendant Hoang Thi Hong and defendant Cuong bought and registered the land use rights for 6 plots of land in District 9 (now Thu Duc City). Cuong and Hong signed a contract giving Cuong's company the exclusive right to consume the products, divide the plots, sell the land, and collect money from customers.
In addition, defendant Hong also signed 10 deposit contracts for land transfer at the Central House residential project, collecting more than 18 billion VND, of which 2 customers sent complaints to the police.
Defendant Nguyen Thi Hoa was determined to have contributed money with defendant Cuong to buy 2 plots of land and agreed to let Hoa be the owner. Afterwards, Hoa signed a confirmation giving Phat An Gia Company full authority to request to divide the plots into projects, buy and sell, and participated in witnessing Cuong negotiate with partners to find distribution customers.
Defendant Hoa also signed as the deposit recipient on 5 deposit contracts promising to transfer and promising to accept transfers with 3 customers, making customers trust and deposit more than 4.6 billion VND to defendant Cuong, creating conditions for defendant Cuong to appropriate.
After the defendant Cuong was arrested by Ho Chi Minh City Police, the defendant Hoa arbitrarily sold the above plots of land for more than 70 billion VND, showing her intention to ignore the consequences when she signed the deposit contract with the 3 above customers. The indictment determined that Hoa, as an accomplice to Cuong, appropriated more than 4.6 billion VND...
