Eleven jailed for fake multi-million-USD afforestation project
The Hanoi People’s Committee on April 18 decided to imprison 11 defendants who appropriated more than 863 billion VND (37.94 million USD) by creating of a fake afforestation project in the central province of Nghe An.
Defendants (blue) at the trial on April 18 (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Committee on April18 decided to imprison 11 defendants who appropriated more than 863 billion VND(37.94 million USD) by creating of a fake afforestation project in the central provinceof Nghe An.
According to the indictment, in 2009, TrinhKhanh Hong, 50, who was Chairman of the board of directors and Director Generalof the Tan Hong Export-Import Joint Stock Company, made a file to borrow 20.5million USD (about 380 billion VND) from the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture andRural Development (Agribank) for an afforestation project.
However, Hong did not use the loan for theproject implementation but for other purposes.
To cover this action, he forged 965 receiptsaiming to show that farmers were paid to plant forest.
While using the loan for wrong purposes, Hongencountered business difficulties and had to pay off many debts. With the helpof other defendants, he used illegal guarantee certificates to appropriate morethan 281 billion VND (12.35 million USD) of other companies.
Hong also colluded with some businesses tocounterfeit documents to get other bank loans worth more than 200 billion VND (8.79million USD) to pay old debts.
In total, Hong and his accessories appropriatedover 863 billion VND from Agribank and partner companies, according to theindictment.
Meanwhile, although five defendants who areformer employees at the Hong Ha branch of Agribank in Hanoi knew that Hong’scompany was unable to pay off debt, they still signed guarantee certificates tohelp Hong mobilise money to pay his bank loan. They reportedly did that becausethey didn’t want to be disciplined for creating new bad debt.
After the week-long trial, the court decided togive Hong a life imprisonment, including 20 years in prison for abusing trustto appropriate asset and a life sentence for swindling.
Do Duc Hung, ex-Director of Agribank Hong Ha,received a 23-year imprisonment. Truong Dang Dan, former deputy head ofAgribank Hong Ha’s business planning division, will have to spend 12 years in jailfor swindling and violating lending regulations of credit institutions.
Nguyen Van Manh, Chief Accountant of the Tan Hong company,was given a 11-year prison sentence for abusing trust to appropriate asset.
Five other defendants, including a former headof Agribank Hong Ha’s business planning division and four former directors ofthree companies will have to serve 5 – 7 years in prison for swindling.
An employee of Agribank Hong Ha was givensix-year imprisonment while another received a three-year suspended sentence.Both were guilty of violating credit institutions’ lendingregulations.-VNA
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Defendants (blue) at the trial on April 18 (Photo: VNA) 
