On August 11, the People's Court of Kon Tum province opened the first instance trial of defendant Phan Ngoc Vinh, former Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Kon Plong District (Kon Tum), and his accomplices for the crime of abusing their positions and powers while performing official duties.

According to the indictment, in 2020, Kon Plong District Agricultural Service Center implemented a project to grow ginseng seedlings and provide red ginseng tubers to Dak Tang and Hieu communes (Kon Plong District). Phan Ngoc Vinh, as the center's director, did not properly perform his assigned tasks and violated the approved budget.

Specifically, Phan Ngoc Vinh arbitrarily changed from growing ginseng seeds to buying ginseng roots and then growing them into plants to deliver to the communes. In addition, Vinh also directed his employees to create fake documents to sign fake economic contracts with the Agricultural and Commercial Service Cooperative and labor leasing contracts to withdraw the entire estimated amount of nearly 730 million VND.

After deducting the money for buying seeds of 168 million VND, Phan Ngoc Vinh did not report to the competent authority to request permission to adjust the budget, did not enter the fund, did not enter it into the monitoring books, but arbitrarily used it for other purposes, such as: paying for labor, buying rice bran, party expenses of the unit... All of these expenses did not have legal invoices or documents.

In this case, there were also 3 defendants who assisted defendant Vinh in committing the crime, including: Nguyen Dai Vinh, former Director of the Agricultural and Commercial Services Cooperative; Tran Thanh Dong, former Deputy Director of the Agricultural and Commercial Services Cooperative; Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Director of the Agricultural and Commercial Services Cooperative.

The consequence of not following the approved budget resulted in the failure to ensure the quality of ginseng seedlings. All ginseng seedlings died after being delivered to the communes for planting, causing a total loss to the state of more than 560 million VND. copper.

At the end of the trial, the panel sentenced defendant Phan Ngoc Vinh to 4 years and 6 months in prison, defendant Nguyen Dai Vinh to 36 months in prison, defendant Tran Thanh Dong to 30 months in prison, and defendant Nguyen Ngoc Anh to 12 months in prison, all for the crime of abusing position and power while performing official duties.