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| Lê Trung Kiên is sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for appropriating properties. – Photo news.zing.vn |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội People’s Court on Thursday sentenced a 44-year-old man to 15 years’ imprisonment for cheating people and appropriating properties.
As per the indictment, Lê Trung Kiên, former director of Hà Nội Real Estate Joint Stock Company (Hà Nội Land Company) , asked the director of Lilama Corporation, Phạm Hùng, to found the Lilama Land Real Estate Company (Lilama Land Company) in early 2007.
Hùng agreed and invited investors for funding. Kiên then asked the investors to buy stocks of Lilama Land Company, though the company had not yet been set up. Between April 9, 2007, and May 16, 2007, Kiên collected VNĐ75.2 billion (US$3.3 million) from 72 investors. The money was deposited in the account of Hà Nội Land Company.
On May 9, 2007, Lilama Corporation held a meeting to discuss setting up Lilama Land Company, but Hà Nội Land Company was not part of the discussion. A week later, on May 17, a list comprising six shareholders of Lilama Land Company was announced, but the list made no mention of Hà Nội Land Company.
Investors who had given Kiên money met him and demanded their money back, but Kiên did not return the funds, instead investing it in other projects, after which he left the country. He was caught on July 17, 2015, after the police issued a wanted notice.
Kiên’s family had handed over more than VNĐ1 billion ($44,400) in an attempt to soften his sentence. — VNS
