Aviation Department officials collude with business owners to 'extort money' from people returning home for quarantine

Officials, businesses, and intermediaries collude to "extort money"

Issuing an indictment to prosecute 17 defendants in the second phase of the "rescue flight" case, the Supreme People's Procuracy stated that the organization of bringing citizens back to the country during the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out in three forms: "rescue" flights, "combo" flights and "single flights that arose unexpectedly and unplanned".

At the local level, the Government assigned a number of provincial People's Committees to receive documents, appraise, and issue documents approving the policy for businesses to bring citizens back for quarantine. Taking advantage of this policy, a number of individuals from departments, branches, and provincial People's Committees directly or through intermediaries agreed to give and receive bribes and "share" large sums of money.

Typically, among the 17 defendants, there is Vu Hong Quang (former Deputy Head of the Air Transport Department, Civil Aviation Authority - Ministry of Transport) who was sentenced to 4 years in prison for receiving a bribe of 2 billion VND in Phase 1 of the case.

In Phase 2, Mr. Quang continued to be proposed for prosecution for giving a bribe of more than 7 billion VND to Pham Trung Kien (former official of the Ministry of Health, sentenced to life in prison).

Specifically, the Procuracy accused Vu Hong Quang of asking Pham Trung Kien for help in September 2020 to obtain written approval from the Steering Committee for citizens to return home on individual flights. Pham Trung Kien agreed and agreed to pay 10 million VND per citizen.

Vu Hong Quang then discussed with two defendants Nguyen Manh Cuong (Head of E-commerce Department, VietJet Aviation Trading Joint Stock Company) and Vu Hoang Dung (freelance worker) the content "Quang can request a document granting permission for citizens to return home on a single flight with a fee of 2,000 - 3,000 USD/person".

From Quang's exchange, Cuong and Dung told the defendants: Bui Dang Khoa (Director of World Travel LLC); Truong Thi My Dung (Director of Anh Sao Thien Tourism Service Trading LLC); Pham Quoc Thang (Director of PNR LLC); Tran Minh Phung (Director of Gia Huy Tourism Service Trading LLC) to collect the files of citizens who wanted to return home and agreed on a cost difference of 100 - 500 USD/citizen compared to the cost Quang gave.

According to the accusation, the group of 4 business owners above collected documents from citizens and once again they agreed to charge an additional fee of 100 - 500 USD/citizen compared to the fee requested by Cuong and Dung.

In addition to Vu Hong Quang's "network", the Procuracy determined that there was also a "network" led by defendant Tran Thanh Nha (a freelance worker). Accordingly, around January 2021, defendant Dang Nhat Duc (Director of Top Agent Japan Co., Ltd.) contacted Nha to ask for help from Pham Trung Kien to get the approval document from the Steering Committee for citizens to return home on a single flight. The cost that Duc paid Nha was from 10 to 15 million VND/citizen.

However, Nha told Duc that it was possible to get a license, but the fee would be from 10 to 35 million VND/person.

Duc then directly received the citizen's documents or through the defendants Pham Quoc Thang and Tran Thi Ngan (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ana Travel Trading and Service Company Limited), agreeing on a cost of 25 - 160 million VND.

When Thang and Ngan collected the citizens' documents, they agreed on a cost difference of 100 - 500 USD/person, compared to the cost Germany required to benefit.

The prosecutor said that when the defendants reached an agreement, in the first half of 2021, Pham Trung Kien and Vu Hong Quang drafted licensing documents, then printed a report with a draft document for the Ministry of Health's leaders to review and sign.

When the approval document is available, Pham Trung Kien takes a photo and sends it to Vu Hong Quang and Tran Thanh Nha to forward to Cuong, Dung, Duc, Khoa, Dung, Thang, Ngan, and Phung. The business owners will forward this document to citizens via Zalo and Viber applications.

Throughout phase 2 of the case, the Procuracy concluded that defendant Vu Hong Quang agreed to give a bribe of 7.46 billion VND to Pham Trung Kien to obtain a document approving the return of 624 citizens to the country, through which Quang benefited more than 19.9 billion VND.

The group of defendants: Tran Thanh Nha benefited more than 8.2 billion VND; Dang Nhat Duc benefited more than 3.1 billion VND; Nguyen Manh Cuong more than 2 billion VND; Vu Hoang Dung 2.8 billion VND; Truong Thi My Dung more than 1.1 billion VND; Bui Dang Khoa 966 million VND; Pham Quoc Thang more than 800 million VND; Tran Minh Phung more than 450 million VND; Tran Thi Ngan benefited 98 million VND.

Aviation Department specialist received hundreds of millions of dong from superiors

During the investigation of the case, the Procuracy clarified the bribery behavior of the defendant Pham Manh Truong (a subordinate of Vu Hong Quang at the Air Transport Department, Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam).

According to the indictment, when Quang received and considered the decision to grant flight permits to airlines to operate "Combo" flights organized by the company, during the implementation process, there were some flights that could not hire large aircraft to carry all the approved number of passengers. Therefore, the companies had to hire two small aircraft, resulting in additional costs, while there were still empty seats for passengers.

To gain more profit, defendants Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang (Deputy Director of Bluesky Company) and Nguyen Tien Manh (Deputy Director of Viet Travel Company) agreed and got Mr. Quang's approval to grant flight permits for a number of passengers exceeding the approved document. The cost Quang proposed was 2 million VND/passenger.

To do so, Mr. Quang directed defendant Nguyen Manh Truong to illegally issue flight permits to 1,019 passengers at the request of Hang and Manh. Former Deputy Director Vu Hong Quang then received a bribe of nearly 2 billion from two business owners. Quang transferred the above amount 4 times to Truong, giving 244 million VND.

The prosecutor's office determined that Truong received 244 million VND in bribes to follow the instructions of his superiors and propose to issue flight permits in excess of the approved number.

Regarding the bribery of Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang and Nguyen Tien Manh and the bribery of nearly 2 billion VND of Vu Hong Quang, they were tried in phase 1. Therefore, the prosecution agency did not consider them in phase 2.