Former Binh Duong Province's Party chief Tran Van Nam.
Photo by Vietnam News Agency. 

The recently dismissed Party Committee Secretary of the southern province of Binh Duong has been arrested for land management violations that cost the state VND126 billion ($5.47 million). 

Tran Van Nam was arrested under the charges of "violations in the use and management of public assets causing waste and losses," Major General To An Xo, the spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, said Tuesday.

Nam had been dismissed of all Communist Party positions for three terms – 2010-2015, 2015-2020 and 2020-2025 – on July 6.

According to the Party's Central Inspection Committee, Nam was directly responsible for signing documents to transfer 188 hectares of land that belonged to the Binh Duong Producing and Trading Corporation, a company of the province's Party unit, to private investors, causing VND126 billion in losses to the state.