Third retrial scheduled for August 9
In July 2024, the Hanoi People’s Court twice held the first trial
for the defendants Le Huy Lan (DOB 1962, former General Director of Coma 18 Joint Stock Company) and Nguyen Xuan Phong (DOB 1968, former Deputy General Director of Coma 18 Joint Stock Company) on charges of “Violation of regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing waste and loss”.
Mr. Le Thanh Than at a trial
In the same case, the defendant Le Van Khuong (DOB 1955, former Chairman of the Members’ Council of Coma Mechanical Construction Corporation) was indicted for “Negligence causing serious consequences”.
However, both trials had to be postponed due to the absence of lawyers and defendants for various reasons.
The Hanoi People’s Court panel then decided to hold the third trial on August 9.
The case file determined that Coma 18 Joint Stock Company was established and operated in 2005 with a chartered capital of over 134 billion VND, of which the State held 51% owned by Coma Mechanical Construction Corporation. The defendant Lan was the General Director.
Earlier, in 1994, the Prime Minister decided to allocate 184 hectares of land to the Company for Urban Development and Services under the Ministry of Construction (now the Urban Development and Services Corporation – HUD) as the investor of the Linh Dam Lake Urban Services and Housing project.
6 years later, Hanoi People’s Committee issued a decision approving the detailed planning of Linh Dam Lake Urban Services and Housing project (VP6 Linh Dam) at a scale of 1/500, in which VP6 Linh Dam lot is a commercial, service, and office building for lease.
In 2010, HUD Corporation signed a contract to transfer the infrastructure of VP6 Linh Dam lot to Coma 18 Joint Stock Company to implement the project.
The contract clearly states that the land lot and the land use right shall not be transferred to a third party during the implementation period. Hanoi People’s Committee also approved the proposal for construction on this lot.
However, in 2013, the defendant Le Huy Lan signed a dispatch to the Corporation, requesting to transfer the project.
Meanwhile, defendant Khuong and the members of the Members’ Council approved the transfer of the project or business cooperation to Coma 18 Joint Stock Company.
The members of the Board of Directors of Coma Corporation agreed to transfer the project to Private Enterprise No. 1 of Dien Bien Province, owned by Mr. Le Thanh Thoan (Muaeng Thanh Group) for a price of no less than 12.9 billion VND.
In July of the same year, Coma 18 Joint Stock Company and Mr. Thoan’s company signed a business cooperation contract, in which Mr. Thoan’s company “contributes 95% of the total investment capital, equivalent to more than 12.3 billion VND, and enjoys 100% of the business results”.
The contract also stipulates that Mr. “Cay Dau” enterprise is responsible for declaring and paying taxes.
No basis to determine complicity
On July 26, 2013, Coma 18 Joint Stock Company authorized Private Enterprise No. 1 of Dien Bien Province to implement the project. However, this enterprise constructed the project in violation of the approved planning.
Specifically, Mr. Thoan’s enterprise increased the number of floors from 25 to 37 (from 138 to 840 apartments, an increase of 702 apartments) and increased the construction area by 630 m2.
In 2015, the building was put into use, and Private Enterprise No. 1 of Dien Bien Province issued VAT invoices and collected money from customers. Just a year later, Hanoi Inspectorate concluded that the land use fee for the VP6 Linh Dam project was temporarily calculated at more than 74.8 billion VND.
By 2023, Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment issued a conclusion, showing that the acts of the leaders of Coma 18 Joint Stock Company in transferring the land to Mr. Le Thanh Thoan’s enterprise caused a loss of more than 64.3 billion VND.
This amount of damage has been paid by Private Enterprise No. 1 of Dien Bien Province for 64 billion VND, and the remaining 300 million VND will be paid upon request by the investigating agency.
The case file shows that during the investigation phase, Mr. Le Thanh Thoan testified that “there was no agreement with the defendant Le Huy Lan about Coma 18 Joint Stock Company receiving the VP6 Linh Dam land to transfer it to Private Enterprise No. 1 of Dien Bien Province”.
Mr. Thoan said that the defendant Le Huy Lan took the initiative to contact and request to sign a contract, and he did not push or influence Coma 18 Joint Stock Company to transfer the project.
As there is no basis to determine the complicity of Mr. Le Thanh Thoan, the investigating agency separated the documents for further clarification.
In addition to the above case, on August 10, 2023, the Hanoi People’s Court opened a first-instance trial and tried Mr. Le Thanh Thoan in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Bemes Company, and at the same time Chairman of Muong Thanh Group, on charges of “Cheating customers” in the CT6 Kien Hung project (Kien Hung ward, Ha Dong district). When the first-instance trial of this case was opened, the panel found many unclear issues and returned the case file for further investigation.
