Former Coast Guard Commander Nguyen Van Son appeared in court for embezzlement

On June 28, the Military Court of Hanoi opened a trial for the former Commander of the Coast Guard Nguyen Van Son and six accomplices in the case of embezzlement of 50 billion VND.

Previously, the case was scheduled to go to trial from May 31, but the defendant’s lawyer Bui Van Hoe proposed to postpone the trial to have time to study the file. The jury approved and moved the hearing to today.

The trial is expected to take place in three days. The presiding judge is the judge, Colonel Pham Minh Khoi. Holding the right to prosecute are two officers of the Military Procuracy of the Border Guard.

Defending the defendants has 14 lawyers, of which two are absent.

The court that summoned the victim was the Coast Guard Command. More than 40 witnesses were summoned to participate in the proceedings, but only more than 10 witnesses were present at the trial.

Reporters work in the press room, watching the trial through the screen.

In the absence of many witnesses and two lawyers, the representative of the Procuracy expressed his opinion that the absence does not fall into the case of mandatory postponement of the trial and proposed that the trial panel continue to work.

The defendants brought to trial include former Lieutenant Generals Nguyen Van Son and Hoang Van Dong, respectively former Commander and Political Commissar of the Coast Guard; Doan Bao Quyet, Major General, former Deputy Political Commissar; Pham Kim Hau, Major General, former Chief of Staff; Bui Trung Dung, Major General, former Deputy Commander; Nguyen Van Hung, colonel, former deputy commander; Bui Van Hoe, colonel, former deputy finance department.

According to the allegations, in 2019, the Coast Guard Command allocated 150 billion dong of the state budget to the Department of Engineering to purchase supplies and equipment. Mr. Nguyen Van Son then met and asked Colonel Hung, Director of Technical Department: “We must withdraw 50 billion VND to transfer it to the High Command for use”.

Mr. Son directed the Deputy Finance Department Mr. Hoe to cut all funding for the maintenance and repair of equipment of the 4 Coast Guard Regions to allocate an additional 29 billion dong to the Technical Department. As a result, the budget for the Technical Department was increased to 179 billion VND.

In April 2019, Mr. Son, Lieutenant General Hoang Van Dong and 3 major generals Doan Bao Quyet, Pham Kim Hau, Bui Trung Dung agreed to “withdraw” 50 billion dong of the budget allocated to the Technical Department.

Mr. Son then directed Hung to implement. In turn, Mr. Hung directed 6 Heads of Operations Department under the Technical Department to withdraw all 50 billion dong. Each head of the department under Colonel Hung was assigned the target to “gut out” from VND 50 million to VND 25 billion to reach the level of VND 50 billion.

These department heads divide the budget into 29 bidding packages, of which 9 packages are worth less than 10 billion VND for the Coast Guard Commander to approve, without having to report to the Ministry of National Defense.

They “problem” with contractors to raise prices, in order to “support units with capital funds used for welfare purposes”. After that, 24 contracts were signed by the Coast Guard Command with 16 businesses, helping to drain the budget of 50 billion VND.

Having obtained this money, Lieutenant General Son divided it between himself and Mr. Dong, Hau, Quyet and Dung, each of 10 billion VND. After being discovered, they returned the money.

With 6 heads of the Department of Engineering, the prosecution agency determined that they “had a dependent relationship”, carried out orders from their superiors, had no profit motive and did not know the amount of VND 50 billion was then divided. individuals should not be criminally handled.

BUI TRANG BOI