Mr. Luu Binh Nhuong was accused of using his position as a National Assembly delegate to help a protection racket extort property and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from businesses to interfere with the authorities in some places.
Mr. Luu Binh Nhuong's actions were stated in the recently completed indictment by the People's Procuracy of Thai Binh province, prosecuting him for the crime of extortion and abuse of power while performing official duties, on October 28.
In the same case, Le Thanh Van, a former National Assembly delegate, and Nguyen Van Vuong, a former specialist of the Legal Department of the Office of the President, were prosecuted for abusing their positions and powers to influence others for personal gain; Pham Minh Cuong, 38 years old (commonly known as Cuong "Quat", has 3 previous convictions); Vu Dang Phuong was prosecuted for extortion.
'Protection' of gangsters
According to the indictment, Sao Do Construction Materials Exploitation and Trading Company Limited was licensed by the People's Committee of Thai Binh province to exploit sand in the sea area of Thuy Truong commune, Thai Thuy district.
When Sao Do Company and other sand mining enterprises, Cuong and Phuong caused trouble, blocking the entrance to the tidal flat to force the enterprises to pay according to the volume of sand mined. If they did not agree, Cuong would obstruct and prevent ships from entering to mine.
Cuong requested Sao Do Company to pay 1,500 VND/m3 of sand that the company exploited, equivalent to 1.05 million VND/sand mining ship. Because there was no other way, the company was forced to accept Cuong's request.
In order to conceal his extortion, Cuong signed a contract to work as a security guard for Sao Do. From September 2020 to December 2020, Sao Do was forced to pay Cuong 3.3 billion VND.
During the sand mining process, Sao Do's ship knocked down illegal stakes and barriers at the tidal flat of gangster Dung "Chien", leading to Cuong's group often having to fight each other. Seeing that it was unsafe, Sao Do stopped sand mining in January 2021 and did not pay Cuong.
Suffering from losses, in May and June 2021, Cuong and Phuong repeatedly went to Mr. Nhuong's private home in Tay Ho district, Hanoi and the defendant's church in Hung Ha district, Thai Binh, asking for help. Mr. Nhuong was then a member of the 14th National Assembly, Deputy Head of the Petition Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
During the meetings, Cuong asked Mr. Nhuong to intervene with the leaders of Thai Binh Provincial Police to create favorable conditions for help. Cuong also bragged to Mr. Nhuong that he used the tidal flats to collect money from Sao Do, earning 400-500 million VND per month. Mr. Nhuong agreed to help but did not call to intervene immediately.
Then, to further strengthen the bond, Cuong invited the National Assembly delegate and his wife to invest in buying an illegally established tidal flat. During the trip to the beach, Cuong also showed Mr. Nhuong that this tidal flat was being used to collect protection money from Sao Do.
At the end of July 2021, Mr. Nhuong and his wife agreed to buy 30 hectares of tidal flats that Cuong had illegally planted and encroached on before. Cuong said the market price was 1.2 billion VND but only took 900 million from Mr. Nhuong and his wife. After buying, Mr. Nhuong and his wife handed it over to Cuong to manage and collect monthly payments, from 60 to 80 million VND.
In reality, there was no mining company, but in order to "befriend" the Deputy Head of the People's Petition Committee, Cuong used the money he had extorted to pay. When Mr. Nhuong's wife texted to ask about the profit, Cuong calculated the amount he had to give to be 400 million VND. However, Mr. Nhuong's wife did not take the money right away because she wanted to save it up to buy more land near Cuong's farm, according to the indictment.
On September 4, 2021, Cuong continued to call and text Mr. Nhuong to ask for further intervention because the gang of Dung "Chien" continuously hindered his protection work. To facilitate the joint business with Cuong outside the tidal flat and to help him avoid harassment when providing protection, Mr. Nhuong called Mr. Pham Manh Hung, Deputy Director of Thai Binh Provincial Police.
Mr. Nhuong said Cuong was his nephew and asked Mr. Hung to help solve and handle Dung "Chien"'s group. The entire call was recorded by Mr. Nhuong and sent to Cuong to listen.
After receiving the recording, Cuong showed it off to his juniors to warn Dung "Chien"'s group. In order to gain prestige, Mr. Nhuong also took Cuong along to the Border Guard Station to meet the authorities of Thuy Xuan commune, Thai Thuy district. When they learned that Cuong had Mr. Nhuong's "backing", Dung "Chien"'s group was afraid and left to do business elsewhere.
Cuong then informed Sao Do that the "riot" had been "quit" and that he could return to mining. From October 2021 to April 2022, Cuong and his accomplices extorted more than 1.3 billion VND from Sao Do Company. In April 2022, Cuong was arrested for disturbing public order, so Phuong took over the work and collected an additional 230 million VND from Sao Do.
According to the Procuracy, the total amount of money that Cuong and his accomplices extorted from Sao Do was 4.9 billion VND. Of which, the extortion of 1.6 billion VND from October 2021 to July 2022 was with the help of Mr. Nhuong. Cuong spent all of this money for personal expenses and paid Phuong about 180 million VND.
Court intervention 'to judge in favor'
In 2020, Mr. Bui Van Thao (Cuong's employee) had a land dispute and lost the first instance trial at the People's Court of Thuy Nguyen District. Mr. Thao then asked Cuong to tell Mr. Nhuong to intervene at the Hai Phong People's Court to have the appeal trial in his favor.
Cuong agreed, went to ask Mr. Nhuong and was approved, told to tell Mr. Thao to write a petition. He later received the petition and accompanying documents sent to the court many times but did not intervene immediately.
Around November 2020, when Cuong visited his family's church in Hung Dung commune, Hung Ha district, Mr. Nhuong praised the beautiful wooden gate of Cuong's house. Seeing that, Cuong said he would give him a set of church gates in order for him to enthusiastically help Mr. Thao with his work. Cuong and Thao then brought a set of ironwood gates worth 75 million VND to install at Mr. Nhuong's church.
A month later, Cuong took Mr. Thao with him to Mr. Nhuong's house in Hanoi to ask for his intervention. There, Cuong told Mr. Nhuong that if he could keep the land, Mr. Thao would cut out 100 square meters worth about 160 million VND to sell to get money to thank him.
On December 14, 2020, Mr. Nhuong, in his capacity as a National Assembly Delegate, signed a document requesting the Chief Justice of the People's Court, the Chief Prosecutor of the People's Procuracy and the Director of Hai Phong City Police to direct the settlement of the case. He requested verification of some of the contents that Mr. Thao accused in the petition.
After the Hai Phong People's Court responded, not accepting the request to temporarily suspend the case, Mr. Nhuong told Cuong and Thao to reapply to continue intervening. On May 31, 2021, Mr. Nhuong, in his capacity as a National Assembly Delegate, sent a document requesting the Hai Phong People's Court to consider annulling the first instance judgment.
The Hai Phong People's Court later responded that it had received the petition and forwarded it to the Trial Council for consideration. Mr. Nhuong took a photo of this document and sent it to Cuong via Telegram. In June 2021, the appeals court upheld the first instance judgment, forcing Thao and his wife to hand over the house and land.
At this time, Mr. Nhuong continued to instruct Mr. Thao to send a petition to the National Assembly Office requesting review under the supervisory review procedure. Knowing that there would be no results, Mr. Thao stopped.
Receive hundreds of thousands of USD, real estate to help businesses 'cry for help'
In another case, Mr. Nhuong was also accused of instructing a business to "make an urgent appeal" to resolve difficulties in approving the Que Vo 3 project in Bac Ninh province. After receiving the business's petition, Mr. Nhuong, in his capacity as a National Assembly delegate, wrote a ballot to forward the petition to the Prime Minister for consideration and resolution.
He later received $300,000, equivalent to VND6.9 billion. His family returned the entire amount.
In 2019, Mr. Nhuong also intervened with the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province to allow Ha Long Company to continue implementing the 36-hectare project. He then benefited from a plot of land worth 1.8 billion VND and aimed to benefit from 1,000 m2 of land in this project worth 1.9 billion VND.
From July to October 2023, Mr. Nhuong was accused of calling and signing documents sent to the leaders of Quang Ninh province to intervene for the enterprise to be granted a license to exploit the project early and benefit from 210 million VND.
Mr. Nhuong, 61 years old, has a PhD in Economic Law, was a member of the 14th National Assembly (2016-2021) of the Ben Tre Provincial Delegation, and a member of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs. In September 2018, he was transferred and appointed by the National Assembly Standing Committee to the position of Deputy Head of the Petition Committee. He was arrested on November 14, 2023, just days before his retirement.
Meanwhile, Mr. Le Thanh Van was accused of using his position as a National Assembly delegate of the 14th and 15th terms and a Standing Member of the National Assembly's Budget Committee to sign four documents to intervene with the leaders of Quang Ninh province and the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister from August 2020 to November 2023. Mr. Van's purpose was to help Ha Long Company implement the 36-hectare project. Mr. Van benefited from a plot of land worth VND 1.8 billion and aimed to benefit from another 1,000 square meters of land - worth VND 1.9 billion.
TB (according to VnExpress)