Nguyen Thi Thu Ha - Director of Ngoc Viet Education Co., Ltd. (also known as Ngoc Viet Corporation) has just been prosecuted by Hanoi City Police to investigate the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.
In the performing arts world, there have been many music nights that have had to be canceled for various reasons. Even professional performing arts organizations can face many risks throughout the operation of organizing a music night.
But, what is the boundary to distinguish between "show tanks" and "fraud"?
We can take the example of the case of "show cancellation" with the force majeure reason of singers Quang Ha, Tuan Hung.
In September 2019, right before the 2 "Insurmountable" performances celebrating the 19th anniversary of singer Quang Ha's singing, a fire occurred at the venue, the Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Cultural Palace. Although controlled immediately afterwards, the fire burned down all sound equipment, LED screens, and musical instruments arranged ready on stage a day earlier, causing heavy damage of up to 8 billion VND to Quang Ha.
Quang Ha almost collapsed because of this incident. But, because he had sold tickets, Quang Ha moved the performance night to the 2:30 PM time slot at another location to not disappoint the audience.
Singer Tuan Hung was also "unfairly" canceled a program, causing damage of about 5 billion VND. Tuan Hung's "Wild Horse" liveshow celebrating 20 years of singing was suddenly announced to be canceled 2 hours before the performance.
According to the reason given, Tuan Hung's liveshow was canceled because Thang Long Media Event Joint Stock Company (the organizer of the Wild Horse show) and Ba Dinh District Culture and Sports Center did not have plans to ensure security and order for the music program at Quan Ngua Sports Complex.
Tuan Hung was shocked to the point of being hospitalized.
To see, in the process of organizing a music show, you may encounter countless risks, there are reasons that even fall from... the sky.
But, the organizers of "Coming Here, four birds of the sky" were caught in a fatal mistake.
According to Lawyer Hoang Ha (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), "If we take the example from the Quang Ha and Tuan Hung cases, we can see the objective and force majeure reasons. But with the show Come Here, four birds of the sky, it is completely different.
At 5 pm on December 28, when the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, the Department of Performing Arts and the Hanoi Police worked with Ms. Ha - Director of Ngoc Viet show, requesting clarification about the organization of the show night. Ms. Ha reported that she was removing obstacles and affirmed that the program took place according to the registered schedule. But only 3 hours later, when the audience had filled the auditorium, Ms. Ha announced the cancellation. The act of lying to functional agencies while knowing the truth - this is the fraudulent trick that Article 174 of the Penal Code stipulates”.
If the show is canceled for force majeure or objective reasons and then announced honestly and refunded to the audience, it is a business risk, not a crime.
But, knowing in advance that the show could not take place, they still deliberately hid it to sell tickets to collect money, even lying to functional agencies that it was fraud.
The boundary to distinguish between "show cancellation" and "fraud" is the element of "intentional from the beginning" and "intentional fraud". And that is why some people cancel shows and receive sympathy from the audience, while others are prosecuted" - Lawyer Hoang Ha said.
In the show cancellation case due to real force majeure, the organizers did not intend to embezzle from the beginning, they only encountered unexpected risks.
Conversely, when the organizers clearly know that the show does not meet the conditions but still sell tickets, that is evidence of the intention to appropriate from the beginning or at least tolerating the consequences of appropriation.
Regarding the value of assets, Article 174 stipulates that the minimum threshold for criminal prosecution is 2 million VND. In large-scale show cancellations such as the case of the "Come here four birds of paradise" music night, the value of embezzled assets may exceed the minimum threshold, so they may fall into heavy penalties.
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