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The High-level People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City believes that defendant Nguyen Thai Luyen played the main role, causing particularly serious consequences, and defendant Vo Thi Thanh Mai was an active assistant to defendant Luyen. Therefore, the High-level People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City requested the panel of judges not to reduce the sentence of defendant Luyen and his wife and requested to uphold the first-instance judgment.
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| Defendant Nguyen Thai Luyen in court |
On May 15, the High-Level People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City continued the appeal trial of the case of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Money laundering" that occurred at Alibaba Real Estate Company. The trial entered the debate phase.
At the court, the representative of the High People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City said that 3 defendants withdrew their appeals at the appeal hearing, so the Procuracy requested to suspend the trial for these defendants. During the trial, some defendants asked for a reduced sentence and paid 10-50 million VND. Considering this is a new circumstance, the High People's Procuracy requested the panel of judges to reduce the sentence for these defendants.
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Defendants in court |
The representative of the High-level People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City said that in this case, defendant Nguyen Thai Luyen (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Company) played a key role, causing particularly serious consequences. Except for the seized assets, defendant Luyen also had to pay back more than 800 billion VND, so the first-instance verdict was correct.
Regarding the defendant Vo Thi Thanh Mai (CFO of Alibaba Company, wife of defendant Luyen), it was determined that she actively assisted defendant Luyen. Regarding the crime of “Money Laundering”, defendant Mai has not yet paid the amount of 12 billion VND, so there is no basis for a reduced sentence.
Therefore, the High People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City requested the panel of judges not to accept the reduction of the sentences of defendants Luyen and Mai, and requested to uphold the first instance judgment. Regarding the defendants who appealed for a reduction of their sentences but did not remedy the consequences, the High People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City believes that there is no basis to accept the appeal for a reduction of their sentences.
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Defendants at the appeal hearing |
In addition, the High People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City requested the panel of judges to accept the appeals of 31 victims requesting an increase in compensation compared to the first instance judgment. Regarding the victims who requested to receive land and bank interest since the property was seized, the High People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City determined that there was no basis to accept this appeal.
Previously, at the end of March 2023, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City postponed the appeal hearing of this case due to the absence of many defense lawyers for the defendants.
According to the case file, defendant Nguyen Thai Luyen, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alibaba Company, established 22 companies under Alibaba, assigned family members or trusted associates to be the legal representatives of the companies, and then organized the purchase of large quantities of agricultural land.
The source of money to buy agricultural land was mobilized from customers by using the legal entity of Alibaba Company and companies in the same system, setting up many residential projects, illegally dividing plots, providing false information such as these were projects with full legal status, naming the projects themselves to call for, deceiving customers into signing contracts to sell land plots as residential land to mobilize money from customers.
At the first instance trial, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Nguyen Thai Luyen to life in prison, Vo Thi Thanh Mai to 30 years in prison, Nguyen Thai Luc (Luyen's younger brother) to 27 years in prison, Nguyen Thai Linh (Luyen's younger brother) to 17 years in prison... After the first instance verdict, 18 defendants, including Luyen, filed an appeal. Later, 3 defendants withdrew their appeals.
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