HANOI, Vietnam (NV) – Three months after the appeal hearing of the Viet A case, officials from the Hanoi Civil Judgment Enforcement Agency confirmed that two prisoners, former ministers, Nguyen Thanh Long and Chu Ngoc Anh, had paid a total of $2.4 million in “remedial money.”
According to Dan Tri newspaper on August 9, most of the above amount, $2.25 million, came from the family of defendant Nguyen Thanh Long, former Minister of Health of Vietnam.
Defendant Long was sentenced to one year in prison by the appeals court because he pleaded guilty, asked for a reduced sentence, and agreed to pay the exact amount of money he was accused of receiving in bribes.
Meanwhile, defendant Chu Ngoc Anh, former chairman of Hanoi and former minister of Science and Technology of Vietnam, paid 4.6 billion VND ($183,194) and was one of the defendants given the lightest sentence in the Viet A case – three years in prison.
It is likely that prisoner Ngoc Anh may be granted amnesty by Mr. To Lam, General Secretary and President, on September 2.
Prisoner Thanh Long may have his sentence reduced in future rounds because his sentence is more severe than Ngoc Anh’s.
Dan Tri’s news also said that after paying the full amount of “remedial money,” both prisoners Thanh Long and Ngoc Anh will likely have their assets such as land and houses that were seized and bank accounts that were frozen while they were in prison released.
At the time the two former ministers were arrested in June 2022, Vietnamese newspapers dared to mention that although they had a salary of about 10 million VND ($398) per month, they all lived in luxury villas worth millions of dollars or more.
Mr. Thanh Long is recorded as owning a villa on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Ba Dinh District, while Mr. Ngoc Anh has a “huge” villa in Vinhomes Gardenia urban area, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi.
According to Dan Tri newspaper at that time, Mr. Ngoc Anh’s villa was valued by real estate traders at about 80 to 100 billion VND ($3.2 million to $4 million). (NHK) [qd]