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2024: Sentence - 18 years for bribes of $2.25 million
On January 12, 2024, a court in Vietnam sentenced two high-ranking officials in proceedings related to the COVID-19 test kit scandal. Former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long was sentenced to 18 years in prison for taking bribes worth $2.25 million. At the same time, Chu Ngoc Anh, the former Minister of Science and Technology, was sentenced to three years for poor management.
At the center of the scandal was the private medical firm Viet A Technology Corp, which was accused of conspiring with officials to produce coronavirus testing kits for the state health care system. At the peak of the pandemic, these products were supplied at prices three times the real cost. Viet A shipped a total of approximately 4.5 million COVID-19 tests at inflated prices, resulting in an illegal income of approximately $50 million.
Viet A founder and CEO Phan Quoc Viet has been sentenced to 29 years in prison in addition to the 25-year sentence determined in a separate trial at the end of December 2023, Reuters reports. The court also handed down sentences ranging from 18 months probation to 15 years in prison for 35 others involved in the case.
The sentences have been read out amid Vietnam's intensification of a years-long anti-corruption campaign in which hundreds of senior officials have been prosecuted for bribery and other crimes. Many of the officials were forced to resign, including former president and prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime ministers.[1]
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