HCM City (VNA) – The Ho Chi Minh City People’sCourt on March 15 opened the first-instance trial of the violation of laws involving the land lot at 57 Cao Thangstreet being exchanged for the land lot at 185 Hai Ba Trung street in the city. 

Nine defendants are charged with “lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences,” includingformer Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai, andformer officials of the city’s Department of Finance, Department of Culture,Sports and Tourism, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the municipal People’s Committee Office and the HCM City LightMusic Centre.

Former DeputyDirector of the municipal Department of Finance Tran Nam Trang, former Directorof the HCM City Light Music Centre Vy Nhat Tao, former Director of themunicipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Thanh Rum, formerDeputy Director of the department Le Ton Thanh, former deputy heads ofthe municipal People’s Committee Office Huynh Kim Phat and Le VanThanh, former Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources andEnvironment Dao Anh Kiet, and former Deputy Director of the department NguyenThanh Nhan.

Meanwhile,Duong Thi Bach Diep, Director of the Diep Bach Duong Real Estate Co., is chargedwith “fraud, appropriation of assets”.

According to the indictment, the 185 Hai BaTrung land lot, owned by the State, was the headquarters of the Light MusicCentre under the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2007, thecentre’s then director Vy Nhat Tao contacted Diep to cooperate in upgrading theheadquarters.

Diep then proposed exchanging her land lot at 57 Cao Thang street for the 185Hai Ba Trung land lot, as she owned the land lot at 179 Hai Ba Trung street andwanted to build a five-star hotel complex there.

The property swap was approved by Nguyen Thanh Tai. During the process, Diepused the land use right certificate for 57 Cao Thang as collateral to borrowmoney from Agribank - HCM City branch.

After being granted a land right use certificate for the property at 185 Hai BaTrung, however, Diep did not use it to replace the collateral at Agribank tohand over the property at 57 Cao Thang to the Light Music Centre as committed.Instead, Diep used the 185 Hai BaTrung land lot as collateral for a loan at Southern Bank and sofar was not able to repay the debt.

The indictment stated that Tai permitted the property swap while he was notresponsible for handling and reorganising State assets.

On March 5, 2010, Tai signed a document sent to relevant units approving theexchange of the two land lots, without any request to check and clarify thelegal status of the 57 Cao Thang land lot, causing losses of State assets.

The other defendants showed a lack of responsibility in carrying out their duty,thus facilitating Diep’s fraud and appropriation of assets.

The trial is scheduled to last till March19./.