Tat Thanh Cang (R) and Te Tri Dung at the court (Photo: VNA)

The former official was sentenced for the charge of “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”.

According to the indictment, Cang, Pham Van Thong (former Deputy Chief of the Office of the municipal Party Committee), and some other defendants holing key leadership positions of HCM City, the Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Co. Ltd (IPC), and the South Saigon Development JSC (SADECO) were assigned to manage the State’s assets and carry out the State’s regulations on the presentation of State capital at enterprises.

However, driven by different motives and purposes, under Cang’s leadership and decision-making role, the defendants committed an array of violations in the transfer of 9 million shares of SADECO to the Nguyen Kim company without bidding and assessment by an organisation specialised in price appraisal.

Those wrongdoings led to losses of over 669.6 billion VND (29.5 million USD) to the State.

Te Tri Dung (former General Director of the IPC and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of SADECO), Ho Thi Thanh Phuc (former General Director of SADECO), and their accomplices abused their authority in managing remuneration and rewards at SADECO to make deceits to illegally spend the money that this company should have paid to the municipal Party Committee’s Office and the IPC. They appropriated more than 4.6 billion VND.

Dung also ordered Phuc and other accessories to spend SADECO’s money on foreign trips by many individuals in the name of “fact-finding tours”, causing losses of over 2.1 billion VND to the State.

At the January 8 session, Te Tri Dung received a jail term of 20 years while Ho Thi Thanh Phuc was jailed for 16 years. Both were charged with "embezzlement" and "violations in the management and use of state-owned property that led to losses or wastefulness."

Seventeen others involved in the case got two- and three-year suspended sentences and jail sentences between three and 13 years.

Source: VNA