The Hanoi People’s Court on June 27th launched another trial against former General Director of Project Management Unit 18 of the Ministry of Transport (PMU 18), Bui Tien Dung and accomplices. Those were accused of on charges of “taking bribes” in the project of building Bai Chay bridge.
This was the third time PMU 18 former officials stood for trial.
In the past Dung had been sentenced 16 year imprison for deliberately acting against the State’s regulations , abusing power and illegal gambling by the Hanoi People’s Court.
Meanwhile, his seven accomplices – Nguyen Vu
Former General Director of PMU 18 Bui Tien Dung had been tried for the charge of ‘deliberately acting against the State’s regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences’ under article 165 of the Penal Code.
According to the Supreme People’s Procuracy’s indictment, during his term of office from 1998-2005, Dung also bribed VND 500 million as “retiring gift” to Do Kim Quy, former PMU18 Vice Director, who then bought a car for wrongly-purposed personal usage.
After the project of building Bai Chay bridge worth VND 1,380 billion was adopted by the Prime Minister, Dung and his seven accomplices began to see legal loopholes. They are are accused of signing inflated consulting hire contracts and making false payrolls of consulting engineers to pocket VND 3.4 billion when carrying out that project from March 2003 until February 2007.
Dung is already serving a 13-year term, which was imposed in 2007, for illegal gambling and for bribery in his attempts to cover up the crime.
His accomplices Vu Manh Tien, vice chief of the PMU 18 office, got a two-year imprisonment, and Bui Thu Hanh, an official of the Finance and Accounting Department of PMU 18, was sentenced to 14 months and five days in prison for the same charge of ‘abusing positions and powers while performing official duties’ in pursuant to Article 281 of the Penal Code.
The Trial is expected to last for 10 days
