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The court tried two former directors of the Vietnam Register, Dang Viet Ha, Tran Ky Hinh and 252 others from July 18 to October 18 on a series of charges.
Ho Chi Minh City People's Court tried Mr. Dang Viet Ha for accepting bribes; Tran Ky Hinh (Mr. Ha's predecessor) for accepting bribes and abusing position and power while performing official duties.
In addition, 252 defendants from the Vietnam Register, 11 registration centers in Ho Chi Minh City and 3 registration centers in Long An, Ben Tre, Soc Trang were prosecuted for the above 2 crimes and a series of other crimes such as: Forgery in work; Manufacturing, trading, exchanging or giving away software for illegal purposes; Illegally infringing on computer networks, telecommunications networks, or electronic devices of others; Forging documents of agencies and organizations; Using fake documents of agencies and organizations; Fraudulent appropriation of property; Embezzlement of property.
The trial panel consists of 5 people, chaired by Judge Huynh Van Truc - Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court of Ho Chi Minh City People's Court. In addition, there is one judge and 3 alternate people's jurors. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy assigned 4 official prosecutors and 3 alternates to hold the right to prosecute in court.
More than 300 lawyers defended and protected the legal rights and interests of defendants, victims and related parties in the case.
According to the indictment, during his tenure as Director of the Vietnam Register, Mr. Dang Viet Ha directed all activities of the unit and managed the registration work nationwide. However, he was lax in management and lacked supervision, allowing the Departments under the Vietnam Register, Registration Centers, and Registration Sub-Departments nationwide to commit systematic violations and negativity for a long time.
When discovering violations and negativity, Mr. Ha did not correct or handle them, but "for personal gain" continued to put forth policies and direct officers of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Department and Registration Centers to receive bribes and divide the benefits according to the principle of "ensuring that Ha's interests are the highest".
The prosecution determined that former Director Ha must bear criminal responsibility for the total bribe amount of more than 40 billion VND. Of which, the units of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Department (from August 2021 to September 2022) received more than 31 billion VND; 4 inspection centers (Block V, under the Department in Ho Chi Minh City from April 1 to November 2022) received more than 7.6 billion VND; 5 inspection centers of Block V in Hanoi received 780 million VND and the bribe money from the Directors of the Inspection Centers of Block D was 680 million VND. Mr. Ha is accused of benefiting nearly 8.8 billion VND and 13,000 USD.
As his predecessor, Mr. Tran Ky Hinh also committed similar violations. He was accused of receiving bribes totaling more than 6.5 billion VND and 23,000 USD from businesses and inspection units for personal gain, ignoring violations in granting licenses for the operation of the Inspection Center, and violations in the vehicle inspection process.
In addition, Mr. Hinh also took advantage of his position and authority to violate regulations, approving and granting full capacity to facilities that did not meet the prescribed conditions, creating conditions for shipbuilding facilities to operate illegally, affecting the normal operations of inspection branches and the Vietnam Register.
After the leadership of the Vietnam Register, the defendants are leaders and officials of the Vehicle Inspection Department (VAR) - the place responsible for evaluating design documents for vehicle modifications. 22 individuals, including the head, deputy head and staff of this specialized department, were accused of a series of violations. Among them, Tran Anh Quan (acting head of VAR) is the most powerful figure.
Authorities determined that since taking office as head of the department in March 2019, Quan had outlined a policy of ignoring errors in design documents to issue vehicle modification certificates to employees of companies. Quan discussed and agreed on the policy of receiving and dividing bribes with 12 VAR inspectors, so he must be responsible for the total amount of bribes that inspectors received, which was more than 60 billion VND.
In addition, during the process of reviewing documents and checking and evaluating the eligibility of Tran Buu Tung's 50-19D Inspection Center, Quan also received a bribe of 9,500 USD. The prosecution agency determined that Quan benefited 11.5 billion VND and 9,500 USD.
During the investigation, the two former directors and most of the defendants confessed their wrongdoings and showed remorse. Some defendants returned part of their illegal profits and actively cooperated with the investigation agency in solving the case. The police recovered and temporarily seized a total of more than 43 billion VND and 118,800 USD along with many other assets to remedy the consequences.
The major vehicle inspection scandal is considered a case of organized corruption, systematic behavior, from the leaders of the Vehicle Inspection Department, the Department of Motor Vehicle Inspection to the directors of many centers. When the case was discovered, most centers across the country were suspended to clarify the violations, severely affecting the people.
Over the past year, since the start of a large-scale investigation into vehicle inspection violations, by the end of 2023, police in 49 localities had prosecuted 114 cases, with more than 800 defendants. Authorities determined that the cases had in common the fact that the sharing of profits was "organized, lasting for many years, continuously, and at many levels".
During its 28 years of operation, this is the first time the vehicle inspection industry has had a record number of people prosecuted. In addition to the defendants who were prosecuted, the Party Committee of the Vehicle Inspection Department has disciplined 10 Party cells with warnings, expelled 47 Party members from the Party, and suspended 24 Party members from Party activities for violations in vehicle inspection activities.
