Defendant Diep Dung at the trial. (Photo: Hoang Tho)
On the afternoon of December 28, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court continued the first-instance trial of defendant Diep Dung, former Chairman of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Commercial Cooperatives ( Saigon Co.op ) and his accomplices for the crime of Abuse of power while performing official duties.
At the trial, the representative of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy presented the indictment and proposed penalties for the defendants.
The representative of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy proposed that the People's Court sentence defendant Diep Dung to 10-11 years in prison for the crime of Abuse of power while performing official duties.
In addition, 4 accomplices charged with the same crime as Diep Dung were recommended to be sentenced to 4 to 6 years in prison.
Four other defendants were prosecuted for the crime of "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences" and were recommended to be sentenced to 2-4 years in prison.
Previously, in response to the People's Court, regarding the accusation of abusing power to use 1,000 billion VND mobilized from investors, defendant Diep Dung explained that after the Big C acquisition deal failed, at this time no investors withdrew capital, while waiting for the opinion of the authorities to recruit new members, if nothing was done with the capital, it would be a waste. Therefore, defendant Diep Dung decided to put 1,000 billion VND mobilized from investors into circulation, with the aim of creating more profit for Saigon Co.op.
According to defendant Dung, with the desire to create more profits for Saigon Co.op, create more jobs and income for staff, after hearing defendant Ho My Hoa (Director of Finance Department) propose to use money for cooperation, defendant found it reasonable so agreed.
However, the former Chairman of Saigon Co.op added that the condition he set for the partners was that they must have collateral. At that time, he did not know which units were available, so when the finance department informed him of the two companies, Do Thi Moi Company and Dai A Company, he agreed.
According to the indictment, in 2016, Saigon Co.op applied for a policy to buy back the Big C Vietnam supermarket chain and was approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. After that, Saigon Co.op's capital mobilization account received VND3,000 billion from 56 companies contributing capital.
According to the investigation agency, from June 2016 to March 2018, defendant Diep Dung did not go through the Board of Directors of Saigon Co.op but arbitrarily directed individuals at the Finance Department and Accounting Department of Saigon Co.op to carry out procedures to transfer VND 1,000 billion from VND 3,000 billion raised as a deposit for the acquisition of the Big C Vietnam chain.
Then, he arbitrarily signed an investment cooperation contract with Dai A Real Estate Joint Stock Company and New Urban Development Investment Joint Stock Company with the above amount of 1,000 billion VND.
According to the investment cooperation contract with the New Urban Development Investment Joint Stock Company and Dai A Real Estate Joint Stock Company, Saigon Co.op was entitled to receive a fixed profit rate of 7%/year. However, defendant Dung later arbitrarily signed a supplementary agreement to adjust the profit rate from 7%/year to 0%/year, causing a loss of more than VND115 billion to Saigon Co.op, of which the tax loss was nearly VND30 billion.
In addition, the Investigation Agency proposed to consider mitigating circumstances for all defendants in the case due to their cooperative attitude during the investigation, honest confession and voluntary payment of part of the compensation, good personal background, and many outstanding achievements in previous work...
Hoang Tho
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