On February 29, it was reported that the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam has completed the indictment against the accused Tran Qui Thanh (former director of Tan Hiep Phat Trading and Service Company) and his two daughters, Tran Uyen Phuong and Tran Ngoc Bich, for the crime of abuse of trust to misappropriate property.
Accused Nguyen Qui Thanh before being arrested. Photo: V.T.
According to the case file, the accused Tran Qui Thanh is a university-educated person with management experience in the beverage business sector and knowledge of the law. Tran Qui Thanh took advantage of the provisions on lending and transfer contracts in the Civil Code to lend at a rate of interest that constitutes a crime under Article 201 of the Penal Code 2015 on the offense of “Lending with high interest in civil transactions”, but did not make any loan contracts with collateral.
Tran Qui Thanh forced businesses and individuals borrowing money to make transfer contracts for projects, real estate assets for his two daughters, Tran Uyen Phuong and Tran Ngoc Bich, in accordance with the legal requirements, but at much lower values than the actual value of the assets.
Afterwards, this group quickly carried out the transfer procedures to take control and decide on the assets. When the asset owners fulfilled their obligations to repay the principal and interest as agreed, the group used deceitful methods or created reasons for the owners to be unable to fulfill their obligations, thereby intentionally not returning the assets and embezzling the assets of four individuals, with a total value of over 1,048 billion VND.
Specifically, the group embezzled the Minh Thanh project with a value of nearly 428 billion VND as of August 2020 and embezzled the Nhon Thanh project, both belonging to Ms. Dang Thi Kim Oanh, with a value of nearly 454 billion VND; embezzled 29 plots of land belonging to Mr. Nguyen Van Chung with a value of nearly 49 billion VND as of March 2020; embezzled 4 plots of land belonging to Mr. Lam Son Hoang with a value of over 80 billion VND as of November 2020; embezzled 2 plots of land belonging to Mr. Nguyen Huy Dong with a value of nearly 39 billion VND as of September 2020. The prosecuting authorities determined that Tran Qui Thanh’s actions constituted the offense of “Abuse of trust to misappropriate property”.
In the course of the investigation, although there were sufficient documents and evidence proving the guilt of Tran Qui Thanh and his accomplices, Tran Qui Thanh remained obstinate, did not make a sincere declaration, and did not have a clear understanding of his own criminal behavior.
The prosecuting authorities determined that although this was Tran Qui Thanh’s first offense, as a business owner who made significant contributions to economic and social development and created jobs for thousands of workers, he took advantage of the provisions on lending and transfer contracts in the Civil Code to commit criminal acts.
The accused Tran Qui Thanh committed multiple offenses with sophisticated and cunning methods to embezzle extremely valuable assets, causing public outrage. Therefore, it is necessary to punish this accused person with a severe sentence under the law in order to educate, deter, and prevent similar offenses.
