VietNamNet Bridge – The Ha Noi People’s Court on Wednesday reopened the trial of three men involved in a large-scale property fraud with as many as 146 victims.

The Ha Noi People’s Court on Wednesday reopened the trial of three men involved in a large-scale property fraud with as many as 146 victims. — Photo: VNA/VNS

The new trial against Nguyen Quoc Xuong, 60, Nguyen Duc Thang, 68 and his 63-year-old brother Nguyen Duc Loi was ordered following a decision last year by the Supreme People’s Court to cancel the previous sentences for all defendants due to a legal breach by the courts.

Tran Ung Thanh, a defendant in the earlier case, died in prison serving his life sentence and was hence technically dismissed from his punishment.

The trio still faced fraud charges in the new trial. They are accused of swindling nearly VND170 billion (US$7.4 million) from people who were looking to buy an apartment in the modern residential area of Viet Hung in Gia Lam District back in 2012.

Hoan Kiem District People’s Committee was the investor in an apartment project in Viet Hung to resettle residents from the overpopulated Old Quarter in the city centre.

Nguyen Duc Thang jumped at the opportunity to broker meetings between the Hoan Kiem authorities and his brother Nguyen Duc Loi, who at that time was the general director of the Ha Noi Company. After the district agreed to let the company build the apartment buildings, Thang and Loi secretly dealt with Tran Ung Thanh, former general director of the Hong Ha Company, scheming to hand over the project to Hong Ha Company at a cost of around VND80 billion.

Ha Noi Company then reported to Hoan Kiem District that it was short of experience to do such project, asking Hong Ha Company to take its place. The proposal was accepted.

While the district was yet to officially approve a detailed plan on the project, the two companies started signing house contracts and received a total of nearly VND170 billion from their customers.

After their fraud was exposed, the two companies only managed to return some VND33 billion to the victims.

A court in 2014 and an appeals court a year later sentenced Thanh and Thang to life imprisonment while Loi and Nguyen Quoc Xuong, former deputy general director of Hong Ha Company, received sentences of 18 and 13 years behind bars, respectively.

They were asked to repay all the money to the victims, many of whom then appealed to the cassation court for the lack of responsibility of the Hong Ha Company to compensate them.

The court in 2017 ruled in favour of the victims, asking for retrials which take into account the role of Hong Ha Company.

Source: VNS