A court in Vietnam yesterday sentenced a former communications minister to life in prison for receiving millions of dollars in bribes, as the hardline administration presses its anti-graft drive against once-powerful figures in the communist state.
Former Vietnamese minister of information and communications Nguyen Bac Son was charged alongside his then-deputy minister, Truong Minh Tuan, with receiving US$3.2 million in bribes to approve the 2015 purchase of a TV firm that would have lost state-run telecommunications firm Mobifone US$300 million.
The two-week trial in Hanoi for the men — once members of the powerful Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee — ended yesterday, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
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Son, a minister from 2011 to 2016, was sentenced to life in prison, while Tuan — who took over as minister until he was fired in July last year — got 14 years in prison.
“The defendants’ behavior caused bad opinions in society, resulting in especially huge losses for the state,” state media quoted the verdict as saying.
It also “caused US$300 million in losses to state coffers,” the verdict said, although the transaction was never fully completed.
Son reportedly admitted wrongdoing before the court and asked for leniency, while Tuan said that he was “shameful for his mistakes,” Tuoi Tre reported.
Prosecutors had initially proposed the death penalty for Son, but he was spared after he returned the money on Friday before the verdict’s announcement.
Both men had received the money from Pham Nhat Vu, director of the loss-making TV company Audio Visual Global, who was also sentenced yesterday to three years in prison, while 11 other officials involved received jail terms of two to 23 years.
Vu’s brother is Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, with assets totaling billions of dollars, thanks to a cradle-to-grave empire that includes housing, holiday resorts, farms, schools, malls and cars.
The case has captivated a public unused to seeing powerful figures publicly toppled.
Since Vietnam’s transition to a hardline administration in 2016, the government has ramped up an anti-corruption campaign, which has jailed dozens of senior officials, bankers and businesspeople.
Some observers believe the drive to be politically motivated.
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