Thursday, January 4, 2024

Executives of Viêt A Technologies and the Military Medical Academy sentenced to lengthy jail terms for the COVID 19 test kit scam

 

On December 29, 2023 the maganize “Le Courrier du Vietnam announced that the Hanoi Military Tribunal  (VietnameseTòa án quân sự Việt Namhas issued its verdict for the 38 defendants following a three-day fraud trial  in the COVID-19 test kit cases. 

Two ranking executives were sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

  • The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viet A Technologies (Joint Stock Company), Mr. Phan Quoc Viet, was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison for "abuse of position and power in the performance of his duties" and "violation of tender rules, causing serious damage" in the case of the COVID-19 test kit by Viet A Technologies JSC and for colluding with hospital staff at the Military Medical Academy and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) officials to provide COVID-19 test kits to hospitals and CDCs at prices set well above the production price as well as paying bribes to health care officials to sell their test kits. 
  • Mr. Ho Anh Son, former deputy director of the Institute of Biomedicine and Pharmacy of the Military Medical Academy, was sentenced to 12 years in prison while serving as the former director of the Science and Technology Department for the Economic and Technical Sectors of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). 

According to the indictment, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, the board of directors of the Academy of Military Medicine sent a document to the MOST, proposing the task of developing COVID-19 test kits. This permitted Viet A Technologies JSC to develop test kits worth nearly VND19 billion (more than US$781,400) and helped it obtain a license to illegally produce the test kits. 

Their wrongdoing caused an economic loss of nearly VND18.5 billion (US$762,260) to the Treasury of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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