HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội Supreme People’s Court opened the trial of the case involving former National Assembly member Châu Thị Thu Nga and her nine partners today.

By releasing false information about the B5 Cầu Diễn project, Nga and her crew deceived and appropriated nearly VNĐ400 billion (US$17 million) from hundreds of buyers.

The trial will go on for 18 days (from October 2 to 20).

According to the indictment, in 2000, Nga established the Housing Group. To operate it under the model of a joint stock company, Nga asked some people to be on the list of capital contributors. In reality, though, she was the main decision-maker.

In 2008, Nga and Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, director of the Hanoi Construction Import Export and Investment Limited Company (HAIC), signed a contract to collaborate for an apartment buildings and garden villas project in the B5 Cầu Diễn area, in Bắc Từ Liêm District’s Cầu Diễn Town.

In reality, this project is located in the area belonging to Hà Nội’s urban development project.

According to the contract, the Housing Group contributed 60 per cent of the capital while HAIC was responsible for the rest.

The B5 Cầu Diễn project was not officially approved or licensed to operate and call for funding. However, Nga posted false information on the project’s legal status and progress on Housing Group’s website.

From 2009 to 2013, Nga and the other defendants signed 752 capital contribution contracts and collected more than VNĐ377 billion ($16.5 million) from customers with a commitment to hand over 752 apartments that were part of the B5 Cầu Diễn project.

With no apartments, Nga then returned nearly VNĐ29 billion ($1.2 million) to 43 customers and appropriated more than VNĐ348 billion ($15.3 million), including VNĐ157 billion ($6 million) spent without any receipt.

On unrecorded spending, Nga said she used VNĐ54 billion ($2.3 million) on her employees to accelerate the project, VNĐ30 billion ($1.3 million) for Nguyễn Văn Tuấn and VNĐ47 billion ($2 million) to deal with administrative procedure and become a National Assembly delegate. However, all those who were alleged to have received the money denied the claim. The Ministry of Security is conducting a separate investigation into this case.

Besides the B5 Cầu Diễn project, the court determined that the Housing Group implemented some projects which showed signs of violating the law, such as the residential area in Phú Thượng, Tây Hồ District, or the shopping mall and apartments on 132 Nguyễn Trãi Street, Thanh Xuân District. — VNS