VietNamNet Bridge – The People’s Procuracy of Ha Noi has approved a request by the Investigative Police Agency to launch legal proceedings against three people for allegedly appropriating assets.

Fruits on sale at Long Bien Market in Hanoi. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Van Canh

The prosecution is part of the investigation into the suspected parking racket at Long Bien wholesale market in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh District.

Duong Quoc Vuong, 50, Nguyen Manh Long, 56 and Le Thanh Hai, 55, will be put into temporary detention pending further investigation.

They all work as porters at the market.

An exposé by VTV in late September reported an illegal parking fee that hundreds of merchants were forced to pay market porters to be permitted to unload their cargo.

According to the report, each merchant had to pay at least VND200,000 (US$9) per vehicle each day, with the fee as high as VND350,000 for a big truck.

As the biggest wholesale market of agricultural products in Hanoi, Long Bien Market hosts roughly 1,000 merchants, of which at least 300 regularly need parking space to unload cargo. A merchant told VTV she paid VND100 million last year to secure a parking space.

That means the illegal parking payments could easily amount to at least VND30 billion a year.

The huge sum of money, however, did not go to the Long Bien Market Management Committee, which only collected entrance fees of between VND15,000 and VND60,000.

Early in October, Hanoi police launched an investigation into suspected asset appropriations that might involve tens of billions dong.

Two journalists from VTV and Phụ Nữ Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh (HCM City Women) newspaper who conducted an investigation and made several reports about the parking system were reported to have received death threats earlier this week, warning them not to conduct further investigation.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the Ministry of Public Security promptly investigate the news and strictly punish those found to have threatened the journalists.  

He also asked for measures to protect journalists and those reporting crimes.

PM Phuc ordered the Ha Noi People’s Committee to report the investigation results before next Monday.  

In another move, the People’s Committee of Ba Dinh District decided to suspend the deputy head of the market’s management board from work and urged the management board to temporarily stop operation of two teams of porters.

Source: VNS