The alleged actions of Phan Thanh Muon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hung Thinh Mineral Investment Group Joint Stock Company (Hung Thinh Company), and his accomplices are detailed in the indictment recently completed by the Supreme People's Procuracy and transferred to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court for trial.

Over nearly four years, Muon's company allegedly extracted over 612,000 tons of raw ore, equivalent to approximately 559,000 tons of heavy minerals. Of this, about 460,000 tons were illegally extracted, valued at over 1,508 billion VND.

Phan Thanh Muon, Chairman of Hung Thinh Group. Photo: Ministry of Public Security

One mine, two sets of data

Hung Thinh has several member companies, including Hung Thinh Zirconium and Titanium Production Joint Stock Company (HTZT Company).

According to the indictment, in 2020, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment granted HTZT Company a license to exploit open-pit titanium at the Sao Mai mine (in Binh Thuan, now part of Lam Dong province), with a capacity of 24,000 tons of minerals per year, valid until the end of 2024.

However, to gain illicit profits, Muon allegedly instructed Pham Van Duong (mine operations director) to organize exploitation beyond the licensed area, exceeding permitted depths and annual capacity for several years. Duong then tasked subordinates with carrying out these instructions regarding location, depth, and technical standards.

After extraction, the ore was weighed, monitored, and transferred to the factory. The warehouse and quality management department recorded the data, forwarded it to the commercial department for aggregation, and reported it to Chairman Muon.

Despite being required to declare actual output, Muon allegedly instructed subordinates to prepare reports based on invoiced quantities, which were significantly lower than the actual amounts. From 2020 to mid-2024, the company declared only about 101,000 tons, while actually exploiting over 559,000 tons, a discrepancy of approximately 460,000 tons.

Investigators determined that Pham Van Dinh, despite being the general director of HTZT Company, did not directly manage operations but followed Muon's instructions, primarily signing altered reports to legitimize the records.

The titanium mine in Hoa Thang commune (formerly Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan) - where Phan Thanh Muon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hung Thinh Minerals Company, committed violations. Photo: Nguyen Quoc

Altering maps, paying to conceal violations

To conceal the violations, the accused group also colluded with individuals from the Central Central Geological Federation to amend technical documents. Tran Le Thanh Tan (deputy mine director in charge of technical matters) was assigned to create inaccurate current status maps, showing "licensed" exploitation, which were then passed to Tran Van Thao (head of the Central Central Geological Federation) and Phan Thanh Nghi (deputy head) for completion.

Despite knowing about the violations, these two individuals still signed reports, current status maps, and exploitation cross-sections that did not reflect reality, enabling the company to continue mining in 2024.

After completing and handing over the falsified current status maps, Pham Van Duong gave Nghi 30 million VND and Thao 20 million VND as a "thank you." Additionally, Nghi and Thao also signed off on finalized drawings to facilitate license renewal. Muon later instructed Hung Thinh Company employees to give Nghi an additional 80 million VND; Nghi then shared 50 million VND with Thao and kept 30 million VND.

Investigators determined that, specifically during the 2023-2024 period, the act of legitimizing records concealed the illegal exploitation of over 190,000 tons of heavy minerals, valued at approximately 486 billion VND.

The defendants in the case. Photo: Police provided

In 2022, Supervision Team 117 of the Binh Thuan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, led by Phan Thi Xuan Thu, conducted multiple inspections and determined that the mine was in serious violation, warranting license revocation.

However, to have these violations overlooked, Muon allegedly instructed his subordinates to "plead" with Thu. Subsequently, the content of the inspection report was adjusted to favor the company.

The company repeatedly gave money to members of the supervision team, ranging from 20 million to 200 million VND each time, totaling over 1,1 billion VND. Furthermore, Muon directly gave Thu 500 million VND. The total amount spent to have the violations overlooked was 1,6 billion VND.

Moreover, during the sale of the ore, Muon and his accomplices allegedly agreed to sell goods at actual prices higher than those recorded on contracts and invoices. The undeclared difference resulted in tax losses for the state exceeding 50 billion VND.

Muon faces charges of: violating regulations on resource research, exploration, and exploitation; violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences; and bribery.

Phan Thi Xuan Thu is accused of bribery. 26 other defendants are charged with related offenses such as: bribery, smuggling, tax evasion, violating resource exploitation regulations, or abusing positions and power while on duty. Among them, the chairman of Rang Dong Group is accused of tax evasion.

>> List of 28 defendants

Hai Duyen