Trial of "billion-dollar chess player" in Soc Trang

After a week of trial and deliberation in the first instance of the case of "officials gambling billions" that caused a stir in public opinion in Soc Trang, on the afternoon of July 16, the Trial Council sentenced the defendants on different charges and sentences.

Defendant Nguyen Thanh Leo received a sentence of five years in prison; Dinh Van Muoi received a sentence of four years in prison for "gambling"; Ngo Hue Phan received a sentence of two years in prison for "gambling"; Nguyen Thanh Hung and Nguyen Thanh Truyen received a sentence of 12 years in prison for "extortion"; Tran Van Tan received two sentences: four years and six months in prison for "gambling" and 13 years for "extortion," for a total sentence of 17 years and six months in prison.

In addition, the defendants were also subject to additional penalties such as confiscation of 5.9 million VND in evidence money from Nguyen Thanh Leo; confiscation of six taels of gold and 1.5 billion VND from Tran Van Tan due to defendant Leo paying off debt; confiscation of 435 million VND from defendant Dinh Van Muoi due to defendant Leo's gambling winnings; confiscation of 90 million VND from Nguyen Thanh Truyen due to extortion; confiscation of 400 million VND from Ngo Hue Phan for gambling with lottery tickets.

Defendants in court. (Source: infonet.vn)

The court ordered the six plots of land that Nguyen Thanh Leo borrowed from acquaintances to pay off his gambling debt to Tran Van Tan to be returned to their owners, and at the same time forced Tan to pay the people who bought these plots of land.

According to the indictment, the main defendant in this case is Nguyen Thanh Leo (former Deputy Director of the Department of Transport of Soc Trang province), who actively invited Tran Van Tan (former Director of the Class 3 Driving Test Center, Soc Trang province) and Dinh Van Muoi (former Deputy Head of the Inspection Committee of the City Party Committee, Soc Trang city) to gamble for money.

Initially, because they were all civil servants and had a close relationship for many years, the defendants Leo, Tan, and Muoi only won and lost by playing chess with lottery tickets. Then, they gradually increased the amount of money from 5 million VND/game to 50 million VND/game, and then from 1-5 billion VND/game before being arrested. Since August 2008, Nguyen Thanh Leo and Tran Van Tan have gambled for money many times.

By the time he was discovered and arrested by the authorities on December 23, 2011, Leo had lost and paid Tan 1.3 billion VND in cash, 6 taels of gold and 6 plots of land in the city worth more than 16 billion VND. In addition, Leo still owed Tan more than 20 billion VND.

Before that, Leo had also invited Dinh Van Muoi to play chess many times and lost more than 1.1 billion VND, and had paid back 570 million VND in cash and lottery tickets. All of the above chess games were organized in many places, but most of them were at the house of the defendant Ngo Hue Phan.

In addition to organizing for Leo, Tan and Muoi to gamble for money, Ngo Hue Phan also received more than 400 million VND as a commission. Because gambling money is difficult to collect, Tan colluded with Nguyen Thanh Hung and Nguyen Thanh Truyen to threaten to use force and intimidation to extort Nguyen Thanh Leo's property, causing negative impacts on the local social order, especially affecting the reputation of state officials and civil servants, which has been mentioned many times by the press.

At the trial, most of the defendants confessed their crimes, only defendant Dinh Van Muoi kept evasive and did not admit to gambling for money, but only admitted to gambling for lottery tickets. In the face of evidence, witnesses and statements from the defendants, the confrontation in court showed that defendant Muoi had committed the crime of gambling with a large amount of money and the Court's verdict was correct for Dinh Van Muoi's crime./.

According to VNA-M