The Hanoi People’s Procuracy has just issued an indictment, prosecuting Pham Tien Dung (born in 1960, residing in Ba Dinh, former Chief Accountant of Ba Dinh District Police) for the crime of “Embezzlement of property”, stipulated in Point a, Clause 3, Article 353 of the Penal Code.
The indictment shows that Ba Dinh District Police is an armed forces unit, and its operations are funded by two sources: Hanoi City Police and local funds.
Ba Dinh District Police opened 2 accounts at the Ba Dinh District State Treasury, including a deposit account managed and monitored by Mr. Nguyen Duy Hong – Head of Ba Dinh District Police; and a temporary deposit account for the fund management business managed and monitored by Mr. Le Xuan Yen – Deputy Head of Ba Dinh District Police.
Since 1989, Pham Tien Dung was appointed Chief Accountant of Ba Dinh District Police, concurrently Deputy Head of Logistics Team, responsible for the unit’s financial and accounting activities.
From 1994 to the end of 1996, while working as Chief Accountant of Ba Dinh District Police, due to heavy debts, Dung took advantage of his assigned authority to appropriate money from Ba Dinh District Police by forging the signatures of Mr. Nguyen Duy Hong – Chief of District Police, Mr. Le Xuan Yen – Deputy Chief of District Police, creating fake documents to withdraw more than 843 million VND deposited at Ba Dinh District Treasury and appropriate it.
Specifically, regarding the act of embezzling more than 543 million VND from the Ba Dinh District Police, the prosecution agency stated that between April 24, 1995 and December 7, 1996, Dung took advantage of his assigned position and authority to write forged content on 12 payment orders with payment guarantee checks for a total amount of more than 543 million VND.
Then, he went to the Ba Dinh District Treasury to cut a check and transfer it to the account of the general service store No. 2 Dang Tran Con (Hanoi) owned by Nguyen Van Dung (Dong Da, Hanoi) to withdraw and appropriate.
To withdraw this amount of money at the Ba Dinh District Treasury, Dung used a trick because he knew Phi Duc Luc (born in 1959, Ba Dinh) who had a store in Giang Vo. Dung met Luc and asked Luc to find a place to exchange the check for cash, and Luc agreed.
Luc and Dung agreed and agreed on the amount of cash to be withdrawn. Luc would cut 1.2% of the amount withdrawn, and Dung agreed. Then Luc contacted Vu Thi Lien (born in 1954, Cau Giay, Hanoi), an acquaintance of Luc, to work as an officer at a company.
Luc asked Lien to help him find someone with a bank account to transfer the check to withdraw cash. Lien agreed and made an agreement with Luc that Lien would receive 0.7% of the amount each time the check was exchanged. Because Lien knew that Nguyen Van Dung was her former colleague, Nguyen Van Dung opened a service business, Lien asked Nguyen Van Dung to transfer the check to withdraw cash. Nguyen Van Dung agreed and requested to cut the fee to 0.3%/withdrawal. Nguyen Van Dung wrote down the account number for Lien, Lien transferred this account number to Luc, Luc transferred it to Pham Tien Dung.
According to the agreement, Nguyen Van Dung was to receive 1.6 million VND of the cash withdrawn; Lien was to receive 2.1 million VND; Luc was to receive 2.7 million VND, for a total of more than 6.5 million VND. Pham Tien Dung appropriated more than 536 million VND and used it all for debt repayment and personal expenses.
The accountant appropriated the deposit money.
Regarding the act of embezzling 300 million VND in the temporary account of Ba Dinh District Police, the indictment stated that on November 11, 1995, Ba Dinh District Police seized 300 million VND from ADC Company in the case of “Intentionally violating the principles, policies, and economic management regimes of the State causing serious consequences”, which occurred at the Office of the City Chief Architect.
On November 13, 1995, Nguyen Thi Binh, who handled the case, completed the procedures to transfer this amount of money to the temporary account at the Ba Dinh District Treasury. Due to the need for money to pay off debts, Pham Tien Dung had the idea of appropriating the temporary money of the Ba Dinh District Police. In order to withdraw the money, there must be a written request from the Head of the unit and decisions from the law enforcement agencies. Dung used the trick of making a fake set of documents, then directed the Treasurer of the Ba Dinh District Police, Pham Thi Dien, to go to the Ba Dinh District Treasury to withdraw the above 300 million VND.
There, Dung was the one who directly processed the withdrawal procedures, and Dien was the one who directly signed to receive the amount of 300 million VND. Dung and Dien did not report to the leaders, did not enter the unit’s fund book, did not transfer it to the Economic Crime Investigation Team for settlement, but instead appropriated the amount of 300 million VND to pay debts and spend it all on personal expenses.
Regarding Pham Tien Dung, after committing the crime, Dung fled. The investigation agency issued a wanted order on December 24, 1996. On December 20, 2023, Dung surrendered to the Hanoi City Police, confessing all his crimes.
During the investigation, Dung confessed that while working as Chief Accountant of Ba Dinh District Police, due to gambling and debt, Dung forged the signatures of the District Police Chief and Deputy District Police Chief on 11 payment orders with guaranteed checks to withdraw money at the Ba Dinh District Treasury.