On February 26, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency issued decisions to prosecute and arrest Nguyen Van Hau - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company and 5 others.

Initial investigation results determined that the chairman of Phuc Son Group and the defendants had committed acts of forgery, false declaration, and omission of revenue and related assets from accounting books... causing particularly serious damage to the State.

Who is Mr. Nguyen Van Hau? What business does Phuc Son Group Corporation do and what projects does it have?

Real estate tycoon from Vinh Phuc

Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company (Phuc Son Group), formerly Phuc Son Construction and Trading Company Limited, was established in 2004 in Tam Phuc commune, Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province.

This enterprise operates mainly in the field of real estate and construction. The Chairman of the Board of Directors and legal representative of Phuc Son Group is Mr. Nguyen Van Hau, born in 1981. Mr. Hau comes from a farming family in Vinh Tuong district.

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Mr. Nguyen Van Hau - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company has just been prosecuted and temporarily detained. Photo: Ministry of Public Security

From scratch, he has developed a reputable company in the market by investing and developing many real estate projects in the provinces of Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Quang Ngai, Khanh Hoa , etc.

These include the project to build the Phuc Son Commercial and Housing Center in Vinh Tuong District (Vinh Phuc) with a scale of 130 hectares; a 15-storey housing area for low-income people in Vinh Yen City (Vinh Phuc); an urban area on both sides of Phu Dong Street in Viet Tri City (Phu Tho) with a scale of 149 hectares...

In addition to real estate projects, Phuc Son Group also won bids to build a number of trillion-dollar projects such as: South bank road of Tra Khuc river (Quang Ngai) with an investment capital of nearly 1,000 billion VND, the project to invest and upgrade the left dike of the Red river with a total capital of more than 1,500 billion VND...

Phuc Son Group is also the main contractor in the renovation and upgrading of the Hung Temple historical relic site in Phu Tho province.

In 2013, Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company decided to invest in Nha Trang with the BT project of the old Nha Trang Airport. This group carried out 3 infrastructure projects. In return, the province will hand over 62.3 hectares of subdivision 2A, subdivision 2 and subdivision 3 of the old Nha Trang Airport to Phuc Son to carry out the project of the Nha Trang urban center of trade, services, finance and tourism.

A series of violations at Nha Trang Airport project

In Nha Trang, the 8X businessman's business has invested in large projects; notably, the Nha Trang Urban Center for Trade - Services - Finance - Tourism project was built on the old Nha Trang airport land.

This “super project” is divided into 1,300 residential plots and hundreds of detached villas, with a total investment capital of up to 10,000 billion VND. However, this is also the project that has caused this enterprise to be involved in many “scandals”.

Specifically, in mid-2019, the Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee issued a document requesting the Department of Construction to continue to inspect to determine whether or not there were violations in the sale and transfer of real estate at the project. According to the report of the Department of Construction, through the inspection in March 2018, the project investor, Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company, put the project's real estate into business and collected money from customers when the conditions were not met.

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Nha Trang airport land overgrown with grass. Photo: Xuan Ngoc

This group has provided documents on reporting and proposing solutions to difficulties and problems in the process of implementing projects under the form of build-transfer (BT) contracts in Khanh Hoa province.

Previously, in November 2017, Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee granted an investment certificate to Phuc Son Group to carry out 3 BT projects in Nha Trang in exchange for the above golden land.

That is, the project of roads and traffic intersections connecting Nha Trang Airport has a total estimated investment of 725.3 billion VND; provisional land fund of 741.671 billion VND; project contract period of 2 years (2016 - 2017). Ngoc Hoi Intersection Project has a total estimated investment of 1,378.9 billion VND; payment land area of ​​5.37 hectares; contract period of 2 years (2016 - 2017). The belt road project connecting Ngoc Hoi Intersection has a total estimated investment of 1,180.1 billion VND; payment land area of ​​about 9.68 hectares; project contract period of 2 years (2016 - 2017).

On June 30, 2021, the Government Inspectorate announced the inspection conclusion on compliance with policies and laws related to BT projects using land funds for payment at projects in the Nha Trang Airport area; including the 3 projects mentioned above.

According to the conclusion, the above 3 projects had violations such as the projects were not completed and put into operation by the end of 2017, although the deadline was extended to June 2021, but by the time of inspection, only about 27% of the construction volume had been completed. The approval of the project proposal, feasibility study report, total investment, and signing of the BT contract were inconsistent with the report to the Prime Minister, increasing the total investment to 484 billion VND, extending the project implementation time by 30 months.

In addition, there were some errors in applying norms, unit prices, construction measures, site clearance compensation and including some investment items that were not in accordance with regulations, increasing the total investment of 3 BT projects to 499,202 billion VND....

In August 2022, Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee issued a document requesting Phuc Son Group to urgently pay nearly 12,000 billion VND to fulfill financial obligations at the Nha Trang Urban - Commercial - Financial - Tourism Center project.

However, businesses believe that this document does not ensure the provisions of current laws because the implementation of financial obligations must be based on the results of land valuation, based on the principle of equal value of BT projects and the notice of the tax authority.

Therefore, the Group has sent a document to the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa province stating the difficulties and committing to fully perform financial obligations in accordance with regulations.

Nha Trang airport is messy, overgrown with grass after 8 years of being allocated land . After 8 years of being allocated land by Khanh Hoa province to pay for BT projects, Nha Trang airport land is still messy, overgrown with grass and in an unfinished state.