On April 19, the trial of the accused Nguyen Thi Loan (Chairwoman of Vimedimex Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company) continued with the debate.
Previously, stating the accusation’s point of view, the representative of the Procuracy analyzed that Mrs. Loan and her accomplices colluded to “lower” the starting price of the land auctioned in Tien Duong village from 500 billion VND to 284 billion VND.
The defendant Loan then sent 3 enterprises belonging to her system to bid so that “whichever company wins the auction, the project still belongs to Loan”. This action is alleged to have caused a loss of 135 billion VND, but this has now been fully remedied. The Procuracy therefore requested the court to sentence all 11 defendants in the case to suspended sentences.
Despite this request for a sentence, Mrs. Loan still maintained that she was slandered and wrongly convicted; that the case file contained about 20 transcripts that were forged… when she was detained, someone forged receipts and related documents.
During her defense, the lawyer of the accused Nguyen Thi Loan stated that the arrest of his client at 11 p.m. on November 29, 2021, at her private residence showed signs of a “serious violation” of procedural law. The search of the defendant Loan’s residence and workplace at the Vimedimex headquarters was also not attended by the defendant or the company’s legal representative. An employee of Vimedimex had signed the sealing record…
Lawyer Duong Dinh Khuyen, defending the accused Nguyen Thi Loan.
Defending Mrs. Loan together, lawyer Duong Dinh Khuyen (Hoang Dam Law Firm) stated that the case showed signs of “letting criminals escape”, because the error in determining the starting price of the land belonged to the price appraisal consulting unit, the person whose property was auctioned, and the competent authority that approved the starting price. This was not the responsibility of the parties involved in the auction, namely the three companies Bac Tu Liem, My Dinh Company, and Thanh Tri Company, or the influence of the accused Nguyen Thi Loan.
According to the lawyer, the prosecuting authority took the time frame of October 2020 (when the price appraisal certificate was issued) to determine the loss from the case, but in reality, the auction did not take place until November 2020. The responsibility for the losses in the case must lie with those who were responsible for determining the starting price incorrectly.
Previously, the indictment of the Procuracy determined that some leaders of the Hanoi People’s Committee, the Department of Finance, and the Hanoi Tax Department were responsible for setting the starting price lower than the actual price, leading to losses. However, they did not know that the survey forms were forged and did not benefit… so they were not subject to criminal prosecution.
Further analysis, lawyer Khuyen argues that in this case, in addition to Mrs. Loan and her subordinates, the prosecuting authorities only prosecuted individuals from the appraisal company, the Dong Anh Project and Construction Investment Management Board, and the land Management Sub-department. However, these were only individuals who played advisory roles and had no decision-making authority.
According to the lawyer, the members of the Hanoi Land Valuation Council were the ones authorized to decide the starting price for the auction, but they were not prosecuted in the case, which is inappropriate.
Another lawyer requested that the responsibilities of the relevant leaders be investigated.
Responding to the lawyers in court, the Procuracy affirmed that the arrest of the defendant Loan was urgent and was carried out in accordance with the law, that the taking of the defendant’s statement immediately after her arrest was necessary, and that this was only the taking of a statement, not an interrogation. The Criminal Procedure Code only prohibits taking of statements at night.
Regarding the documents and evidence in the case file that the accused Loan said were forged, according to the Procuracy, these documents all bear the signature of the accused Loan, so it cannot be said that they are forged.
Prosecution presents evidence charging
At the trial, most of the defendants admitted their guilt, acknowledging that their actions were as charged in the indictment and agreeing with the views of the representative of the People’s Procuracy at the trial. However, there were 2 defendants who pleaded not guilty: the defendant Nguyen Thi Loan and Tran Cong Tuyen (Head of the Infrastructure Exploitation and Site Clearance Management Department of the Dong Anh District Project Management Board, Hanoi).
The representative of the Procuracy analyzed the two necessary and sufficient conditions to determine the act of collusion to lower prices in the auction activity in this case: intentional price reduction, followed by collusion to lower prices leading to damage to the case. Specifically, for the consequences in this case to occur, there must be a “necessary condition” that the starting price is lower than the actual price and a “sufficient condition” that there is an act of collusion to lower the purchase price to the lowest price. If either of these two factors is missing, it will not lead to damage in the case.
According to the Procuracy, in reality, the defendants in the case carried out two groups of actions: reducing the starting price and colluding to lower the price. During the investigation, the defendant Loan made 14 statements admitting that the proposal of the defendant Nguyen Quang Hung (Deputy General Director of Thanh Tri Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company) presented a plan for the auction, the steps for the three companies to participate in order to win the auction, the defendant Loan agreed and instructed her subordinates to implement it. This statement was also confirmed through the confrontation between the defendant Loan and the defendant Hung.
In addition, the prosecutor also cited an email from the defendant Loan replying to the defendant Hung’s email about agreeing with Hung’s proposal and giving instructions to prepare for the auction work of the three companies (Bac Tu Liem, My Dinh, Thanh Tri).
