Former director of Thu Duc City Hospital on trial for embezzlement and money laundering

On November 29, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened the first-instance trial of defendant Nguyen Minh Quan (former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital) and his wife, Ms. Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem, and accomplices for the crimes of "Embezzlement of property", "Money laundering", and "Violation of bidding regulations causing serious consequences".

The trial is expected to last until December 1, presided over by Judge Pham Luong Toan, Chief of the Criminal Court.

38 units were summoned to court with people with related rights and obligations, including the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the City Department of Health. There were 11 lawyers participating in defending the defendants.

According to the prosecution, from 2016-2020, Thu Duc City Hospital organized bidding for 31 packages to purchase medical equipment to serve medical examination and treatment. Of which, 28 packages had approved winning bid results, completing payment of more than 346.2 billion VND.

To take over all these bids, Mr. Quan directed Nguyen Van Loi (an employee of Mr. Quan and his wife) to establish and use the following companies: Ngoc Dao Company Limited, Nguyen Tam Production and Trading Service Company Limited, Trung Dung Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Thanh Vuong Saigon Company Limited, to participate in the bidding.

In order to raise the price of machinery and equipment higher than the market price, Mr. Quan directed Loi to have his employees create false and roundabout sales contracts between companies in the group.

Then, Mr. Quan used 3 of his "backyard" companies to submit bids with inflated prices for machinery and equipment.

At the same time, at Thu Duc City Hospital, Mr. Quan established a procurement team, teams to carry out bidding activities such as the bidding document drafting team, bidding invitation team, bid evaluation expert team... managed by the defendants who were employees of Thu Duc City Hospital, but in fact these bidding teams did not operate according to the assigned decisions, only signing to complete and legalize the documents.

Taking advantage of his position as director, Mr. Quan directed and pressured his subordinates and members of the bidding evaluation teams to sign legal documents that had been "colluded with", committed fraud in bidding, and failed to ensure transparency in bidding activities...

Accordingly, from 2016 to 2020, 4 "backyard" companies of Mr. Quan managed by Nguyen Van Loi won 27/28 bid packages at Thu Duc City Hospital with a total value of more than 345.2 billion VND. After deducting expenses, Mr. Quan appropriated more than 103.6 billion VND.

To conceal the source of the embezzled money, Mr. Quan directed Loi to withdraw cash, transfer money into his and his wife's accounts or transfer money directly into the company's account to buy real estate and cars, and withdraw cash for personal use.

As for Ms. Diem, Mr. Quan's wife was identified as an accomplice who assisted and obeyed her husband's instructions, so she was prosecuted for the crime of "Money Laundering".