After more than a year of inquiry, police in Vinh Phuc Province have completed their investigation into the case of abusing power and causing a loss of US$1.44 million to the State budget involving nine defendants, including eight former State officials.

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They have proposed that the local prosecutor’s office indict all of the defendants, including two former Party Committee secretaries of the province’s Vinh Yen City, Nguyen Vinh Quyen, 54, and Lai Huu Lan, 63, who have been charged with “abusing position and power”.

These two former secretaries were also chairmen of the city People’s Committee.

Also facing the same charge are Nguyen Xuan Truong, 57, former deputy chairman of the city’s Dong Tam Ward; Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, 54, former director of the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Nguyen Thi Ngoc, 41, former director of the Department of Finance and Planning; Nguyen Xuan Lien, 51, former deputy chairman of the province’s Tam Dao District People’s Committee; Vu Van Chuc, 46, an officer at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment; and Duong Dinh Tam, 42, a businessman.

Another former official, Nguyen Van Hoa, former deputy chairman of Vinh Phuc Province People’s Committee, was charged with “being irresponsible and causing serious consequences.”

The instigator of the case is Nguyen Huu Quan, a 42-year-old businessman in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District. Quan fled from Vietnam in 2011 and had been wanted internationally until he was arrested by US police at Dulles international airport in Washington D.C. on February 23, 2012. 

As shown in the case file, in 2009 Quyen ordered his subordinates to forge Hoa’s signature in a document to revoke 25 hectares of farmland in Dong Tam Commune. The land was later illegally handed to Quan and Tam to develop an urban project for their own interest.

The land withdrawal and the use of the farming land for the urban project were against the Law on Land and other relevant regulations, causing a total loss of VND30 billion ($1.44 million) to the State budget, investigators said. 

In return for the help from these State officials, Quan and Tam gave kickbacks to them. For example, Quan gave Lan a Toyota Camry car worth VND1.1 billion ($52,800).

Besides his offenses in this case, Quan has also been prosecuted for swindling many individuals and companies of a huge amount, VND500 billion (nearly $24 million), in another case, police said.

Specifically, he had mobilized capital from his victims for the Thanh Ha A Cienco 5 project, and then simply appropriated all of the money.

Source: Tuoi Tre