The decision was adopted at a meeting of the Central Committee Secretariat, chaired by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, based on a proposal of the Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission. The commission issued a warning against Thoa over “serious violations” and proposed she be stripped of all her positions.

Thoa served as Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the formerly State-owned Dien Quang Lamp Company, and then as Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and General Director of the Dien Quang Lamp Joint Stock Company, from January 2004 to May 2010. She is accused of violating regulations and procedures on business equitisation, and wrongly handling loan interest worth VND6.7 billion (US$298,000) exempted by banks.

She also allegedly infringed State regulations on land management when the company signed a contract with another company to invest in a plot at No 12 Ton Dan Street in HCM City. She also failed to properly handle the VND30 billion ($1.3 million) collected from the transfer of the land use rights. Thoa is also alleged to have bought more shares than the permissible level and her transfer of shares also violated the company’s regulations.