Starting the second day of a four-day appeal trial for the case involving the MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation’s purchase of 95 percent of shares in the Audio Visual Global JSC (AVG), the High-Level People's Court in Hanoi reviewed the sentences and appeals by nine defendants including Nguyen Bac Son (former Minister of Information and Communications), Le Nam Tra (former Chairman of MobiFone's Member Council), Hoang Duy Quang (staff member of the AMAX investment consultancy and valuation company), Pham Thi Hoa Mai (former member of MobiFone's Member Council), and five former Deputy General Directors of MobiFone - Ho Tuan, Nguyen Manh Hung, Nguyen Bao Long, Nguyen Dang Nguyen and Phạm Thi Phuong Anh.
The defendants at the court on April 24
Following the first-instance court that took place from December 16-28, 2019, 11 of the 14 defendants filed appeals, asking for clemency and reduced sentences.
Later, former General Director of MobiFone Cao Duy Hai and former Director of the AMAX investment consultancy and valuation company Vo Van Manh withdrew their appeal requests.
A representative of the High-Level People's Court in Hanoi told the court this morning that although Son had provided compensation for the financial losses he caused, his actions seriously violated the government’s anti-corruption policies and should be strictly punished.
Therefore, the court proposed to uphold the life imprisonment for Son for taking bribes and violating regulations on the management and use of public investment capital.
The court also proposed to uphold the two-year-and-a-half sentence for Nguyen Manh Hung, Ho Tuan, Phan Thị Hoa Mai, and Pham Thi Phuong Anh and the three-year sentence for Hoang Duy Quang. They were all charged for violating regulations on the management and use of public investment capital, causing serious consequences according to the first-instance trial’s verdict.
Le Nam Tra was proposed to have his 23-year sentence reduced by one or two years.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Dang Nguyen was proposed to have his two-year sentence suspended, and Nguyen Bao Long had his two-year-and-a-half sentence reduced to two years.
Three defendants did not appeal, namely Truong Minh Tuan, former Minister of Information and Communications; Pham Dinh Trong, head of the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Department of Enterprise Management; and Pham Nhat Vu, former Chairman of the AVG Board of Directors.
During the first-instance court, Truong Minh Tuan was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking bribes and another six years for violating regulations on the management and use of public investment capital, causing serious consequences. The total sentence for him is 14 years behind bars.
Trong received a five-year term for violating regulations on the management and use of public investment capital, causing serious consequences. Meanwhile, Vu has to spend three years in jail for offering bribes.
According to the verdict, in 2015, MobiFone, which is run by the Ministry of Information and Communications, bought 95 percent of AVG’s shares for VND8.9 trillion (USD375 million), much higher than their actual value. The deal caused a loss of over VND6.59 trillion (USD277 million) to the state budget.