On the afternoon of May 3, after many days of deliberation and sentencing in the appeal trial of the case that occurred at Thu Duc House Development Joint Stock Company and Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, High-level People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City pronounced the verdict for 24 out of 43 defendants who appealed against the first-instance verdict of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court.
The Council of Judges reduced the sentence of former Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh, by 1 year in prison. Accordingly, the defendant will serve a 3-year prison sentence for “Violating regulations on management and use of state assets causing waste and loss”.
Defendants at court
Previously, the High-level People’s Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City proposed a 3-4 year reduction in the sentence for defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuong, former director of Hoang Nam Anh International Trading Company Limited. After consideration of the behavior and other mitigating circumstances, the Second Instance Council reduced the sentence for this defendant by 2 years. Thus, the defendant Thuong was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime of “Fraudulent appropriation of property”.
The appellate court also reduced the sentence for defendant Nguyen Vu Bao Hoang, former General Director of Thuduc House (sentenced to 6 years in prison for two crimes: “Fraudulent appropriation of property” and “Violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences”). Accordingly, this defendant was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison for both offenses.
The defendants Vo Quang Lam, former expert of Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department; Nguyen Huu Duc, former deputy head of Inspection and Examination Office No. 8, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department; Hua Quang Son, former deputy head of Legal Department, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, were all sentenced to 1 year, 5 months, and 21 days in prison. However, since this sentence is equal to the time the defendants were detained, they were released at the court hearing.
The Council of Judges determined that this is an exceptionally serious case masterminded by Trinh Tien Dung (born in 1973; currently wanted internationally).
From 2016 to 2020, Dung operated many companies in and outside the country to manufacture fake electronic components, used goods that were repeatedly bought and sold, exported abroad to be eligible for a refund of 538 billion VND in value-added tax.
Dung used “shell” companies to illegally import 39 shipments worth over 72.5 billion VND, making an illegal profit of over 5.2 billion VND. Through the export of fake and counterfeit goods, Dung transferred more than 1,760 billion VND abroad and vice versa, earning an illegal profit of 5.3 billion VND in service fees.
Between February 2018 and June 2019, Dung colluded with Thuduc House cadres and leaders to establish 19 sets of dossiers requesting tax refunds, totaling over 430.6 billion VND. The Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department then issued 17 value-added tax refund decisions to Thuduc House totaling over 365.5 billion VND.
The remaining 20 defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 years suspended sentence to 30 years imprisonment for crimes such as: “Smuggling”; “Illegal transportation of goods and currency across the border”; “Use of fake seals or documents of agencies and organizations”; “Fraudulent appropriation of property”; “Abuse of power to appropriate property”…
