Defendant Đinh Ngọc Hệ at the court on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Former deputy minister of national defence Nguyễn Văn Hiến on Thursday was sentenced to four years in prison for lacking responsibility and causing serious consequences in defence land management.

Đinh Ngọc hệ, deputy general director of the Thái Sơn Corporation under the Ministry of National Defence, and chairman and general director of the Thái Sơn Development and Investment JSC, received 20 years imprisonment for acting fraudulently to appropriate a Navy land lot in HCM City.

Bùi Như Thiềm, former head of the Economics Division at the Việt Nam People’s Navy, was given nine years in prison for

Bùi Văn Nga, former director of the Hài Thành Service and Sea Island Tourism One-Member Limited Liability Company; Đoàn Mạnh Thảo, former head of the Navy’s finance division and Trần Trọng Tuấn, deputy director of the Hải Thành Service and Sea Island Tourism One-Member Limited Liability Company, were sentenced to eight, seven and four years in prison respectively for violating regulations on land management.

Phạm Văn Diệt, general director of the Đức Bình Group Joint Stock Company and managing director of the Yên Khánh Production, Trading Service Limited Company; and Vũ Thị Hoan, director of the Yên Khánh Production, Trading Service Limited Company and director of the Yên Khánh Hải Thành Limited Company got 15 and seven years in jail, respectively.

According to the court, as a leading official, former deputy minister Hiến failed to complete his management tasks and lacked supervision at work.

He was banned from holding positions at organisations for three years after completing his jail term.

According to the verdict of the Central Military Procuracy, when Hiến was deputy defence minister and commander of the Việt Nam People’s Navy, he approved the use of defence land on Tôn Đức Thắng Street, Bến Nghé Ward for economic purposes without verifying information provided by his subordinates. This broke Defence Ministry and Government regulations, as well as the 2013 Land Law.

Hiến failed to supervise financial contributions and ignoring orders from the Defence Ministry. These included his duty to verify why authorisation was given to a Hải Thành Company director to sign venture contracts, which resulted in partners using land-use rights certificates to take out mortgages, change the nature of the ownership and transfer the land to third parties.

Đinh Ngọc Hệ and Bùi Như Thiềm were accused of acting fraudulently by forging signatures to transfer land use rights from Hải Thành Company to Yên Khánh Hải Thành Company for use as collateral for bank loans.

As a result, the Navy lost the right to manage and use three plots of land for 49 years, causing losses of VNĐ939 billion to the State budget. — VNS