Vietnam Court Sentences Hưng Thịnh Mining Chairman to 10 Years for Illegal Titanium Extraction

On 7 August, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Phan Thành Muôn, chairman of the Hưng Thịnh Mining Group, to ten years in prison for illegal titanium mining, serious accounting violations and bribery. The court also handed down prison terms to co‑defendants, including former Bình Thuận provincial environment official Phan Thị Xuân Thu (seven years) and former customs officer Lê Văn Hưng (twelve years), and imposed fines ranging from 500 million VND to 15 years’ imprisonment for others involved.

The illegal operation was carried out by the subsidiary HTZT, which extracted about 612,485 tonnes of titanium ore – roughly 460,000 tonnes above the permitted annual capacity – valued at approximately 1.5 trillion VND. To facilitate the excess extraction, Phan Thành Muôn paid bribes totaling about 1.63 billion VND to officials, including Phan Thị Xuân Thu. A Chinese national, Huang ShangXia, was also sentenced to fifteen years for smuggling and accounting offenses linked to the scheme.