Nguyễn Kim Hưng, aka Hưng “kính”.— Photo vietnamnet.vn

HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội Police detained and searched the house of a man yesterday for allegedly appropriating assets as part of the investigation into the suspected racket at Long Biên wholesale market in the capital city’s Ba Đình District.

Fifty-six-year-old Nguyễn Kim Hưng, aka Hưng “kính,” took advantage of his assignment as head of a porter group at Long Biên Market to let his subordinates – including Nguyễn Hữu Tiến, Nguyễn Mạnh Long, Lê Thanh Hải and Dương Quốc Vương – force merchants to pay money to be permitted to unload their cargo, said Deputy Director of Hà Nội Police Colonel Nguyễn Văn Viện.

Each merchant had to pay from VNĐ250,000-300,000 (US$11-13) per vehicle each day. Some even had to pay as much as VNĐ100 million ($4,400) a year.

Tiến was also detained yesterday.

In early December, the Hà Nội People’s Procuracy approved a request by the Investigative Police Agency to launch legal proceedings against Long, Hải and Vương.

The case came into spotlight in late September when an exposé by Vietnam Television reported the illegal parking fees at the market.

Immediately following the report, the city’s People’s Committee and Ba Đình District People’s Committee requested the market’s management board work on the case. Early in October, the city police launched an investigation into suspected asset appropriations.

The district’s People’s Committee also suspended the deputy head of the market’s management board from work and urged the board to temporarily stop operations of two teams of porters.

Police are continuing the investigation into the case. — VNS