The two are Nguyen Thi Thu Ha and Nguyen Thanh Sang, who are both former deputy directors of the Department of Finance of the central city of Da Nang. 

House search warrants against them were also issued on the day, along with orders banning the two from leaving their places of residence. 

Earlier, on January 30, the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu Nhom), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bac Nam 79 Construction Company and former Chairman of the Nova Bac Nam 79 Company, to 15 years in jail for “abusing position and power while performing duties” under Article 356 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Vu, born in 1975, is a former Senior Lieutenant Colonel and deputy head of a division at the General Department V of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

According to the indictment, while operating the Bac Nam 79 Construction and Nova Bac Nam 79 Companies, Phan Van Anh Vu, under the name of the MPS, asked ministries, sectors, and local administrations to rent land to him as well as transfer to him the right to use land and property on land of public housing and land projects in prime positions in Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh City, which was not in line with State regulations.

He then went on to make them his own properties or those of his relatives, transferred them, or put them under shared ownership with other people to earn illegal profits.

Under the first-instance judgement, Vu, with the highest role in the case, has to bear responsibility for a loss of over 135 billion VND to the State.-VNA