Former Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee 'supported sand bandits' sentenced to more than 8 years in prison

On April 2, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh was convicted by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City of abusing his position and power while performing official duties.

Mr. Tran Anh Thu, former Vice Chairman of An Giang Provincial People's Committee, was sentenced to 8 years in prison; Nguyen Viet Tri (former Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment) received 9 years in prison for bribery.

According to the Trial Council, the former Chairman of the People's Committee of An Giang province and the group of defendants, who are leaders and officials of the People's Committee of the province and related agencies, all have high qualifications in their fields of responsibility, but for personal gain and profit, they violated the law, creating conditions for Trung Hau 68 Company to be granted a license to illegally explore and exploit minerals, causing damage to the State of nearly 294 billion VND.

However, the court also noted that the defendants had many mitigating circumstances such as: during the investigation, prosecution, and trial, they honestly confessed their crimes, actively cooperated with the investigation agency; had many outstanding achievements in their work... so the sentence was below the level recommended by the Procuracy.

Regarding the Western sand tycoon Le Quang Binh (Chairman of Trung Hau 68 Company), the court determined that the defendant committed the crime as the ringleader and main beneficiary. The defendant's actions affected the proper operation of agencies and organizations; violated the economic management order, specifically the State's regulations on management in the field of research, exploration and exploitation of resources; caused particularly great damage, and undermined the people's trust in public agencies, so he must be severely punished to serve as a deterrent.

From there, the Trial Council sentenced Mr. Quang Binh to the highest sentence of a fixed-term penalty of 30 years in prison for the crimes of bribery, violating regulations on research, exploration, exploitation of resources, and money laundering.

The remaining 40 defendants were fined from VND500 million to 9 years in prison.

Regarding civil liability, the Trial Panel ordered defendant Quang Binh to pay back nearly VND294 billion from illegal sand mining and VND817 million in tax losses to the State. The defendants, former leaders and officials of An Giang province, must also pay back the money they committed.

Some other individuals who received money from Le Quang Binh must also return it because it originated from criminal acts. If any disputes arise between these individuals, they will be resolved through another lawsuit.

The verdict determined that in April 2020, Trung Hau 68 Company submitted a request to the People's Committee of An Giang province to survey and grant a license to exploit sand at My Hiep and Binh Phuoc Xuan mines in a designated manner without auction. The purpose was for Trung Hau 68 to have a source of sand to supply for the projects connecting National Highway 91 and the Long Xuyen city bypass. In early 2021, the People's Committee of An Giang province granted Trung Hau 68 a license to survey and explore, and by the end of the year, to exploit sand at My Hiep and Binh Phuoc Xuan communes. According to the license, Trung Hau 68 Company is allowed to exploit 300,000 m3 within a year.

When exploiting sand at the mine from March 2022 to July 2023, Trung Hau 68 Company repeatedly requested to increase its "capacity". Although this enterprise did not meet the conditions, Provincial Chairman Nguyen Thanh Binh still directed his subordinates Thu and Tri to complete the procedures, deciding 7 times to adjust and supplement the license for the total sand reserves allowed to be exploited to 1.5 million m3 - double the exploitation time. The amount of exploited sand is only allowed to be supplied to 4 projects including: My Thuan - Can Tho expressway; the route connecting National Highway 91 and the Long Xuyen city bypass; Long Dien A - B canal road and the Can Tho - Hau Giang and Hau Giang - Ca Mau sections of the North-South expressway project.

The prosecution agency determined that Trung Hau 68 was not subject to the mechanism, but Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh still sent a document to the Prime Minister requesting the mechanism to be applied to the enterprise so that it would not have to prepare an environmental impact assessment report. From there, the enterprise could easily adjust its license and increase the capacity of the sand mine. When he learned that the depth of the riverbed in the sand mine area exceeded the permitted level, affecting the adjustment to increase the mining capacity, the owner of Trung Hau Company proactively met with the provincial leaders to raise the issue. The provincial chairman then directed his deputy and the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Viet Tri, to "create all conditions" for the enterprise to continue to increase its mining capacity.

Taking advantage of the sand mining license, Le Quang Binh directed Hoang Hai Thuy, Le Trong Hai, Vo Truyen Thong (deputy general directors) and Nguyen Tan Linh (executive director of Trung Hau Company) to mine a total of more than 5 million m3. Of which, the volume of sand supplied to the project according to the license was more than 1.3 million m3, illegally mining sand, selling to retail customers in addition to 3.7 million m3, earning a profit of 294 billion VND. In addition, Mr. Le Quang Binh also sold the sand mining location in the Trung Hau 68 mine to other businesses for them to mine and retail to customers.

Authorities determined that Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh's direction to his subordinates to help created conditions for Trung Hau 68 to illegally exploit 3.7 million cubic meters of sand, causing damage to the state of nearly 294 billion VND.

During the process of applying for a license and increasing mining capacity, the owner of Trung Hau 68 paid defendant Tri 3.1 billion VND, Nguyen Thanh Binh 300,000 USD, Thu 961 million VND and Nguyen Bao Trung 550 million VND.

With the profit from sand mining (170 billion VND), Mr. Le Quang Binh used 37 billion to ask his brother and nephew to buy 6 real estates in Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Tien Giang. He used 9.1 billion VND to buy 8 luxury cars such as Mercedes S450, G63, Lexus 570...