Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has recommended prosecuting 54 mostly high-level officials, including the former deputy foreign minister, over a pay-to-play scheme related to the repatriation of Vietnamese citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ministry’s Investigative Security Agency said Tuesday it had completed its investigation of the scheme and submitted its findings to the Supreme People’s Court, calling for the 54 people to be charged with giving bribes, receiving bribes, brokering bribes, abusing their position as public. servant and appropriation of property through fraud, according to state media.
The proposed charges stem from a case against former Vice Foreign Minister To Anh Dung for allegedly receiving 21.5 billion dong (US$915,000) in bribes to add companies to a list of repatriation flight providers.
State media said Dung was in charge of approving plans to organize repatriation flights based on proposals from the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department.
In addition to Dung, the agency proposed charges of receiving bribes for Vice Foreign Minister Vu Hong Nam, Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Quang Linh, Head of the Department of International Relations of the Government Office Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director General of the Ministry of the Department Consular for Foreign Affairs, Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, and Vice President of the Hanoi City People’s Committee, Chu Xuan Dung, as well as 16 others.
Other defendants are from the ministries of public health, transport and public security; the Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority; the people’s committees of Hanoi and Quang Nam provinces and the Hanoi municipal people’s committee.
The agency recommended bribery-brokering charges for Maj. Gen. Nguyen Anh Tuan, the deputy director general of the Hanoi police force, and three others.
During the investigation, Tuan confessed that he had received 61.6 billion dong (US$2.65 million) to help Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang and Le Hong Son, CEO and Deputy CEO of Blue Sky Co., avoid prosecution. prison for his role in the repatriation scandal. On March 31, the Ministry of Public Security removed Tuan from his post and ordered him to retire.
Vice Foreign Minister Nam was said to have received 1.8 billion dong (US$76,600) during his tenure as Vietnamese ambassador to Japan to help Nhat Minh Company sell air tickets and hotel accommodation as quarantine places for passengers from six flights are repatriated. Vietnamese citizens of Japan.
Nguyen Quang Linh, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, was accused of receiving 4.2 billion dong or US$179,000 to help some companies obtain permits to organize “rescue flights”.
Linh was accused of violating Vietnamese laws and labor rules and regulations by advising the government on the selection of companies involved in organizing flights to repatriate Vietnamese citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From April 2020 to January 2022, Vietnam organized around 400 rescue flights, bringing back more than 70,000 citizens from more than 60 countries and territories. Many passengers had to buy overpriced tickets and go through complicated paperwork to get a flight home.
Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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