Former Director of the Department of Registration was scammed of 100,000 USD to listen to investigation information

Receive bribes of 60 million/month

According to the investigation conclusion, the Vehicle Inspection Department (VAR) is an organization under the Vietnam Register, with the function of advising the director in managing the technical safety and environmental protection inspection of motor vehicles, and inspecting specialized motorbikes in circulation nationwide.

The VAR Department has the duties and authority to carry out design appraisal and acceptance of the modification of motor vehicles and specialized motorbikes in circulation.

During the process of appraising the design documents of modified motor vehicles, leaders and inspectors of the VAR Department - Vietnam Register took advantage of their positions to not properly follow the appraisal and inspection procedures, ignore errors in the design documents, and issue design appraisal certificates against regulations to receive bribes from companies ranging from 1.5 to 3 million VND/document.

Specifically, in March 2019, Mr. Tran Anh Quan was appointed acting head of VAR department.

At this time, some inspectors assigned to review design documents met with Mr. Quan to report on receiving bribes from design companies during the document review process.

After that, Mr. Quan and the inspectors agreed to divide the money monthly according to the ratio of 700,000 VND/file for Quan (including the part that Mr. Quan received, the part for diplomatic reception and the part divided for the department's leaders, Mr. Tran Ky Hinh and Mr. Dang Viet Ha).

The portion for each deputy manager of VAR is 100,000 VND/file; for each office staff is 50,000 VND/file.

Upon receiving the money from the inspectors, Mr. Quan continued to divide 60 million VND/month to Mr. Tran Ky Hinh and 20 million VND/month to Dang Viet Ha. The remaining amount was partly used for diplomacy and entertaining guests, and the rest was for Mr. Quan to benefit from.

At the investigation agency, Mr. Tran Ky Hinh confessed to receiving bribes during the file appraisal process of 60 million VND/month, for 28 months, a total of 1.6 billion VND.

Withdraw $100,000 from bribe money to collect investigation information

By August 2021, Mr. Hinh retired, Mr. Dang Viet Ha held the position of Director of the Vietnam Register.

In the meeting with the VAR department leader, Mr. Ha requested that the VAR department must report accurately the data of the design appraisal files every month, ensuring that Mr. Ha's interests are the highest.

After the meeting, the group agreed on how to divide the money according to the ratio: divide 400,000 VND/file for Mr. Dang Viet Ha, 300,000 VND/file for Mr. Quan, 100,000 VND/file for each deputy manager of VAR...

By October 2022, because the police discovered and handled violations by the inspection units, the above subjects no longer accepted bribes.

Around December 2022, fearing that the incident would be discovered, Mr. Ha returned 5 billion VND to Mr. Quan, who gave it to Nghiem Van Cuong to keep.

Later, when the investigation agency got involved, Mr. Ha told the incident to Mr. Lai Thai Phong (deputy chief of office of the Vietnam Register), Mr. Phong said that he knew Nguyen Van Chung and had many relationships with the police agencies.

Hearing that, Mr. Ha told Phong to ask Chung to find out information about how the police would handle the case. Phong agreed. Then Mr. Ha told Mr. Tran Anh Quan to use the 5 billion VND to convert it into US dollars.

Then, Mr. Quan gave 100,000 USD to Mr. Ha at Mr. Ha's office.

After receiving the money from Mr. Quan, Mr. Ha called Lai Thai Phong to his office and gave Phong 100,000 USD. Phong then gave the money to Chung to ask him to find someone to collect information about the vehicle registration case. However, Chung was unable to do so and took the money.