HANOI: Vietnam’s former health minister was sentenced to eighteen years in jail Friday while dozens of other health officials and business people were handed prison terms for their roles in selling overpriced Covid-19 test kits.
The Viet A scandal, named for the semi-private company that made the kits, allegedly saw senior officials make multiple million-dollar agreements to supply hospitals and local communities with testing equipment at vastly inflated rates.
Vietnam initially stood out for its effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but officials were later caught pocketing money from firms organizing repatriation flights and community testing.
After a 10-day trial in Hanoi, a court found almost all of the thirty-eight defendants guilty of bribery, abuse of power or other charges.
Nguyen Thanh Long, health minister from 2020 to 2022, was sentenced to eighteen years for taking bribes worth 2.25 million dollars.
Earlier in the week, in his final speech before the court, the minister said he regretted and felt painful for his violation.
His lawyer had argued that he did not ask for the bribes but was merely given the money “as thanks after a lucrative business”.
Former Hanoi mayor Chu Ngoc Anh was given 3 years for “violating regulations on management of state assets”.
Other officials and businessmen were given between fifteen years and two years suspended.
The scam was estimated to have netted some 172 million dollars for the firm that made the overpriced test kits — 34 million dollars of which was allegedly used to bribe officials.
The company’s CEO, Phan Quoc Viet, was given twenty-nine years on Friday for bribery and violating bidding regulations — a sentence that came after a military court had already handed him twenty-five years in December.
Sentences under Vietnamese law
He will serve a maximum of thirty years in accordance with Vietnamese law.
In recent years, Vietnam has ramped up an anti-corruption drive targeting corrupt officials and members of the business elite.
