10-7-2023 (HANOI) Former Deputy Minister Tô Anh Dũng, former Vice Chairman of Hanoi Chử Xuân Dũng, and 19 other former officials are set to appear in court on bribery charges related to 515 instances of corruption involving 165 billion Vietnamese đồng in the “rescue flight” case.
The trial, presided over by Judge Vũ Quang Huy, is scheduled to commence tomorrow at the Hanoi People’s Court and is expected to last for a month. Among the 54 defendants, 21 individuals have been indicted by the Supreme People’s Procuracy for accepting bribes, 24 for offering bribes, 4 for abusing power while performing official duties, and 4 for brokering bribes.
The group of 21 defendants accused of receiving bribes includes former high-ranking officials from the Government Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, Hanoi People’s Committee, and Quang Nam Provincial People’s Committee.
Eighteen of them have been charged under Article 354, Clause 4 of the Penal Code, with the highest possible punishment being the death penalty. Notably, this group includes 59-year-old Tô Anh Dũng, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Nguyễn Quang Linh, former Deputy Prime Minister’s Assistant; Chử Xuân Dũng, former Vice Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee; Vũ Hồng Nam, former Ambassador of Vietnam to Japan; Nguyễn Thanh Hải, former Director of the International Relations Department of the Government Office; Nguyễn Thị Hương Lan, former Consular General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Vũ Ngọc Minh, former Ambassador of Vietnam to Angola.
The individual who faced the most bribery charges is Phạm Trung Kiên, former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health, accused of receiving bribes 253 times, amounting to a total of 42.6 billion Vietnamese đồng. The court has summoned 19 commercial travel service companies, 46 individuals associated with their roles and responsibilities, and 33 witnesses, including several diplomatic officials. Over 100 lawyers have registered to represent the 54 defendants, with Tô Anh Dũng alone having three lawyers.
As of April 2023, when the indictment was issued, the 54 defendants had collectively made restitution payments totaling over 53 billion Vietnamese đồng. In early July, Chử Xuân Dũng, former Vice Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee, had his family submit a restitution payment of 1.7 billion Vietnamese đồng out of the 2 billion Vietnamese đồng in bribes he had accepted from businesses.
According to the indictment, since April 2020, the government allowed the execution of “rescue flights” to repatriate Vietnamese citizens. During these flights, individuals only had to pay for their airfare and incurred no quarantine costs. Subsequently, combo flights were introduced, where citizens voluntarily paid for the entire process. Companies wishing to organize combo flights had to seek approval from provincial or municipal People’s Committees responsible for managing the citizens’ quarantine. The applications were then submitted to the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which consolidated the information and sought opinions from five ministries (Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Health, Transport, and Defense).
From early 2020 to mid-2021, authorities approved and organized over 1,000 flights, bringing back more than 200,000 citizens from 62 countries and territories. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs alone proposed the government’s approval for 772 flights, including 400 rescue flights and 372 combo flights.
To facilitate these flights, a group of 20 companies with over 100 legal entities inflated ticket prices and added additional expenses for customers returning to Vietnam during the pandemic. According to the Supreme People’s Procuracy, this is a particularly serious case that occurred during the height of the tense COVID-19 situation. The defendants took advantage of the pandemic and disregarded regulations to enrich themselves, resulting in a decline in Vietnam’s reputation. These actions created opportunities for “hostile forces to distort and incite confusion among the people.”
Twenty-five individuals took advantage of their positions of authority to accept bribes amounting to nearly 165 billion Vietnamese đồng, causing losses of 10 billion Vietnamese đồng. Twenty-three representatives from businesses offered bribes totaling over 226 billion Vietnamese đồng, while four individuals brokered bribes amounting to nearly 75 billion Vietnamese đồng and engaged in embezzlement of nearly 25 billion Vietnamese đồng.
“Subverting justice” with nearly $3 million
In addition to bribery related to the execution of rescue flights, the Supreme People’s Procuracy has identified a group of defendants involved in “subverting justice.”
According to the indictment, in January 2022, as the case began to surface, Lê Hồng Sơn and Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hằng, the CEO and Deputy CEO of Bầu trời xanh Company, respectively, fearing criminal investigation and prosecution, met with Nguyễn Anh Tuấn, a former Deputy Director of Hanoi Police Department.
Tuấn acted as an intermediary and arranged a meeting between them and Hoàng Văn Hưng, who was the Chief of the Investigation Division, Security Investigation Department, Ministry of Public Security, and also the primary investigator of the case. From February to July 2022, Tuấn facilitated eight meetings between Hằng and Hưng to discuss how to make the most advantageous statements. During these meetings, Hưng instructed Hằng to take full responsibility to save Sơn, while Sơn would deny any knowledge and shift blame onto Hằng.
However, a few months later, the investigative authorities determined that Sơn owned 70% of the company’s shares and was the CEO, making it impossible for him to solely accept responsibility. Hưng asked, “Are you determined to save Sơn?” and suggested that Hằng provide additional money to influence the relevant authorities. By July 2022, Hằng had handed over a total of 1.2 million US dollars to Tuấn for Hưng.
Despite providing the money, Sơn and Hằng were continuously summoned for questioning by the investigative agencies over the next two months. Hằng continued to give an additional 600,000 US dollars to Hưng.
In September 2022, Hưng was reassigned and no longer involved in the investigation, but he continued to meet with Hằng, urging her and demanding more money, citing the “high pressure from the prosecutor’s office.” Tuấn acted as the intermediary for these meetings. At this point, Hằng learned that Hưng had been reassigned but Hưng assured her that it was only an administrative matter, claiming that he was still directly involved in the investigation and overseeing the case.
On December 8, 2022, Sơn was temporarily detained and charged with bribery. In response, both Hằng and Sơn filed complaints regarding theTitle: Former Vietnamese Officials Face Trial for Massive Bribery Scheme Linked to “Rescue Flights”
