Former director of Thu Duc Hospital used more than 100 billion VND to embezzle to "fix the case"

Mr. Nguyen Minh Quan, former director of Thu Duc City Hospital and Nguyen Van Loi, director of Nguyen Tam Company (one of Quan's "backyard" enterprises) will be tried by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City on November 29, for the crime ofEmbezzlement of propertyaccording to Clause 4, Article 353 of the 2015 Penal Code (penalty range from 20 years, life imprisonment or death penalty).

In addition, these two defendants and Ms. Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem (Mr. Quan's wife) were also prosecuted for the crime ofMoney laundering.Defendant Tran Hau Nghia, Director of Hai Dang Medical Equipment Company, and 5 former leaders and officials of Thu Duc Hospital were prosecuted for the crime.Violation of bidding regulations causes serious consequences.

The trial, chaired by Judge Pham Luong Toan, Chief Justice of the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Court, will last until December 1. In addition to the five-member jury, there will be four prosecutors assigned to prosecute at the court, along with two alternates.

The panel of judges summoned 38 units and people with related rights and obligations, including the People's Committee and the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City. 11 lawyers participated in defending the defendants.

From 2016 to 2020, Thu Duc City Hospital organized bidding for 31 packages of medical equipment procurement for medical examination and treatment. Of which, 28 packages have approved winning bid results and completed payment with a total value of more than 346 billion VND.

According to the indictment, for personal gain, Quan directed Loi to establish four "backyard" companies and hire and use the names of his relatives to participate in the acquisition of bidding packages. Loi assigned his employees to create false and roundabout sales contracts between companies to raise the price of machinery and equipment 30%-50% higher than the market price.

Quan then directed Loi to use 3 out of 4 companies to submit bids with inflated prices for machinery and equipment. Loi directed Nghia to prepare a bid with better criteria than the other 2, with the intention of having one company win the bid.

At the hospital, Mr. Quan, as the Director, annually signs decisions to establish teams to carry out purchasing, budgeting, bidding, signing contracts, etc., and then assigns them to the authorities to complete procedures according to regulations. However, in reality, the bidding teams do not operate according to the assigned decisions, only signing to complete and legalize documents. Hospital staff clearly know that the bidding companies are all Mr. Quan's "backyards" but still follow the instructions.

The prosecution determined that the four companies managed by Loi won bids for 27 out of 28 packages with a total value of more than VND345 billion. Loi directed his employees to transfer more than VND103 billion to Quan and Diem, the couple, to inflate the prices of medical equipment from the 27 bid packages.

Quan directed Loi to withdraw or transfer the embezzled money into his and his wife's accounts or the accounts of companies so that Quan and his wife could buy real estate. Quan and his wife used the embezzled money to buy a resort villa in a project in Nha Trang; a villa in the Saigon - Ba Son Complex Center Project; real estate in Thu Duc City; 2 luxury cars...

Mr. Quan confessed that he used 11.8 billion VND to buy a plot of land in Linh Xuan Ward, Thu Duc City. When the violations in the bidding process at the hospital were discovered and investigated, Quan and his wife sold this plot of land for 19 billion VND to get money to "fix the case", but failed.

Regarding the violations and personal responsibilities, the authorities assessed that during the investigation, Mr. Quan did not honestly declare, blamed and pushed the blame to his subordinates, so he needs to be strictly handled to ensure deterrence and general prevention.

As for Ms. Diem, when the hospital transferred money to the winning companies, she asked Loi to transfer money to her. She received a total of nearly 68 billion VND from Loi to buy real estate...

In addition to this case, Mr. Quan was also accused of violating bidding regulations related to the purchase of Covid test kits from Viet A, causing losses of more than 10 billion VND.

Escaped the charge of 'running the case' by confessing before being discovered

In 2021 and 2022, while serving as Director of Thu Duc Hospital, Mr. Quan was investigated by the Ministry of Public Security for violations, so he spent a total of more than 3.7 million USD 8 times to Bui Trung Kien (former officer of Department 6, Department of Police Investigation of Crimes of Corruption, Economy, and Smuggling - C03, Ministry of Public Security) to "fix the case".

Kien agreed to help Mr. Quan and Nguyen Van Loi avoid legal trouble for 2.2 million USD. Kien then received the full amount from Mr. Quan 5 times. In May 2021, seeing that C03 was still checking vigorously, Kien was asked by Mr. Quan to get his money back, so he paid 1.15 million USD and embezzled 1.05 million USD (equivalent to 23.5 billion VND).

Mr. Quan then continued to look for another "door", and was contacted by lawyer Bui Thi Hong Giang Le, who contacted Le Thanh An (officer of room 5, C03) to "fix the case" for 1.5 million USD.

In this case, 6 people including two former officers of C03 of the Ministry of Public Security were tried, but Mr. Quan was determined to have "actively reported before being discovered" so he was exempted from criminal liability.