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                 Vietnamese Lawmaker Arrested for Alleged Fraud

   by Marianne Brown

   A member of Vietnam's National Assembly was arrested late Wednesday
   over an alleged real estate scam.

   Police searched the home of 49-year-old Chau Thi Thu Nga for several
   hours Wednesday, seizing an undisclosed number of documents.

   She was arrested over alleged fraud involving a housing project run by
   her private company. The company collected deposits from 80 potential
   home buyers between 2009-2010 worth a total of $14 million, but did not
   pay them back when the project did not materialize, a report in Thanh
   Nien newspaper said. It was expected to be finished by the end of 2015.

   Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former deputy chairman of the National Assembly's
   Committee on Culture, Education and Youth, said some negative
   information about Nga began circulating at the beginning of the
   assembly election process in 2011.

   However, he suggested that perhaps the relevant agencies did not
   investigate this thoroughly and the electorate voted her in.

   She was suspended on Wednesday from her position as a member of the
   National Assembly's Committee on Finance and Budget.

   Lawmakers in Vietnam are allowed a level of immunity from prosecution,
   as Dinh Xuan Thao, chairman of the National Assembly's Legislative
   Research Institute explained in an interview with state broadcaster VTV
   Thursday.

   He said according to the constitution, no one is allowed to arrest,
   detain or prosecute a deputy without approval from the National
   Assembly.

   In Nga's case Chairman of the Assembly Nguyen Sinh Hung gave permission
   for investigation agencies to go ahead.

   The government has been carrying out a crackdown on corruption in
   recent years amid economic woes with several high profile trials, some
   of which have resulted in the death penalty.

   Observers often connect the arrests of prominent business figures with
   political infighting in the Communist Party.

   Deputy Thuyet said he believed this was not the case with Nga. Police
   gathered enough evidence against her, he says, and have already
   arrested her partners.

   Vietnam is rated 119 out of 175 countries in Transparency
   International's [1]Corruption Perception Index 2014, ranking it ahead
   of Cambodia and Myanmar but behind Thailand, Indonesia and China.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/vietnamese-lawmaker-arrsted-for-alleg
   ed-fraud/2590104.html

References

   1. http://www.transparency.org/country#VNM
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/vietnamese-lawmaker-arrsted-for-alleged-fraud/2590104.html