Former HCMC Party deputy chief receives additional 6-year jail term

Tat Thanh Cang, former deputy secretary of Ho Chi Minh City’s Party Committee, was given Wednesday an additional six-year jail term for approving illegal sales of public land.

Cang was found to have “violated regulations on management and using of state assets, causing waste and losses” per the Penal Code.

In combination with his first jail term of 8.5 years in the case of selling nine million shares of South Saigon Development Corporation (Sadeco) at dirt cheap prices, Cang’s total imprisonment rose to 14 years and six months.

Sadeco, a wholly state-owned company under the management of the municipal Party Committee, was assigned to manage two residential complex projects Phuoc Kien and Ven Song in Nha Be district and District 7, respectively.

According the court, the transfer of these projects should have been appraised and gone through auctions in line with the Law on State Assets Management.

However, Tat Thanh Cang, Tran Cong Thien - former general director of Sadeco, and others breached the regulations, allowing the projects to be transfered to private company Quoc Cuong Gia Lai at a price lower than market prices.

"The defendants' acts caused particularly serious consequences, especially large losses to the state coffers, and degraded the reputation of state agencies, so they must be strictly handled," the judgment stated.

Tran Cong Thien was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while Pham Van Thong, former vice chief of the HCMC Party Committee's Office, was given a jail term of 11 years. Thong's total jail term is 17 years, including his previous jail term.

The remaining seven defendants were sentenced to three to 11 years in prison.