On the morning of January 3, the trial of 2 former Ministers and 36 defendants in the Viet A case

These 38 defendants were prosecuted for the following crimes: Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences; violating regulations on State asset management causing waste and loss; giving bribes; receiving bribes; taking advantage of positions and powers while performing official duties; taking advantage of influence over people with positions and powers for personal gain.

Of the 38 defendants, 30 were detained and 8 were on bail. Three defendants in this case were brought to trial in the first instance of the Viet A Company and Military Medical Academy case by the Hanoi Military Court from December 27 to 29, 2023, including: Phan Quoc Viet (General Director of Viet A Company) was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Vu Dinh Hiep (Deputy General Director of Viet A Company) was sentenced to 6 years in prison and Trinh Thanh Hung (former Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology) was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crimes of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties" and "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences".

At the trial, a total of 72 lawyers registered to defend 38 defendants; of which, Phan Quoc Viet had 4 defense lawyers, former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long had 3 lawyers, former Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh had 1 lawyer... 24 civil plaintiffs, 139 people with related rights and obligations... were summoned to the Court. Among the 24 civil plaintiffs, there were 17 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of 17 provinces and cities and representatives of 2 provincial Health Departments, 5 general hospitals.

Representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology were summoned to the court as litigants with related rights and obligations.

The trial panel consists of 5 members, including 2 judges and 3 people's assessors. Judge Tran Nam Ha is the Chairman. Three prosecutors from the Supreme People's Procuracy (seconded to the Hanoi People's Procuracy) and two prosecutors from the Hanoi People's Procuracy are assigned to exercise the right to prosecute and supervise the trial.

In this case, former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long was prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy for "Accepting bribes". Defendant Phan Quoc Viet was prosecuted for two crimes: "Giving bribes" and "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences". Former Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh and former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac were prosecuted for the same crime of "Violating regulations on management and use of state assets causing loss and waste".

According to the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy, when COVID-19 broke out, taking advantage of the State's policy of assigning units to proactively research and manufacture biological products to serve the work of epidemic prevention and control, Phan Quoc Viet colluded with the defendants who were people with positions and powers at the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health, and the Government Office so that Viet A Company could coordinate to participate in the implementation of the National Research Project on testing, with the Ministry of Science and Technology representing the owner. By many tricks, the defendants carried out a series of violations, turning the testing test from a research product of the Project owned by the State into a product owned by Viet A Company, producing and selling it commercially nationwide at inflated prices, earning extremely large illegal profits.

Phan Quoc Viet colluded with Trinh Thanh Hung so that Hung could influence Chu Ngoc Anh and Pham Cong Tac to decide to allow Viet A Company to coordinate in implementing the Project on research and manufacturing of illegal testing tests. With the purpose of producing and selling testing tests to make illegal profits, Viet continued to collude with Trinh Thanh Hung, Nguyen Thanh Long and many other defendants to commit many violations to help Viet A Company to have testing tests inspected; to have phase 1 of the Project accepted to prepare documents to send to the Ministry of Health for temporary and official registration numbers, turning testing tests from products owned by the State into products owned by Viet A Company.

To facilitate the sale of test products nationwide, Viet colluded with defendants from the Ministry of Science and Technology to be proposed to receive a Certificate of Merit to polish the image and brand of the test; colluded with defendants from the Ministry of Health to negotiate at inflated prices, delayed checking the negotiated prices to create a price level for the test; introduced to provincial and municipal leaders to commercially sell test products for illegal profits.

In order to get the accomplices to intervene and help as mentioned above, Phan Quoc Viet agreed to share and give bribes and thank-you money many times, with a total amount of 3.45 million USD and 4 billion VND. Of which, Phan Quoc Viet bribed Trinh Thanh Hung twice with a total amount of 350,000 USD (equivalent to 8 billion VND); directly and directed Vu Dinh Hiep to give bribes to defendants at the Ministry of Health with a total of 2.65 million USD (equivalent to 60 billion VND) and 4 billion VND.

In order to consume large quantities of test kits in localities and be paid at inflated prices, Phan Quoc Viet, Vu Dinh Hiep and employees of Viet A Company colluded with leaders and employees of public health facilities to commit acts that violated the provisions of the law on bidding, pre-purchase of goods, legalization of procedures, and payment documents at the unit price set by Viet A Company. During the process of consuming test kits, Phan Quoc Viet directed employees to calculate and pay percentages outside the contract; directly or directed employees to bribe a total of 34 billion VND to leaders and employees at public health facilities nationwide.

The indictment concluded that the total amount of money Viet gave in bribes was more than 106 billion VND. Viet's actions caused a loss of more than 1,235 billion VND; of which, the loss to the State Budget was 402 billion VND.