Summary

  • A former official at VietJet Air has been arrested in a bribery scandal over for-profit COVID-19 repatriation flights.
  • The scandal is part of a wider anti-corruption crackdown in Vietnam, where over 50 people were accused of bribery.
  • The investigation revealed that 20 officials and civil servants received nearly $7 million in bribes to facilitate administrative procedures for repatriation flights.


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A senior official at Vietnamese low-cost airline VietJet Air has reportedly been on house arrest for two weeks after being accused of bribing to secure for-profit COVID-19 repatriation flights. It comes after a long-running investigation uncovered as many as 50 people were giving and receiving bribes earlier this year.

While most penalties are prison sentences of around a decade, some, including former government officials, face life behind bars. The discovery of the alleged flight bribes is reportedly part of a major anti-corruption move in Vietnam that resulted in the resignation of the country’s President.


Thousands of dollars in bribery money

According to VnExpress, Nguyen Manh Cuong, the head of e-commerce at VietJet, was arrested by Vietnamese officials on September 23rd, pending an investigation into his alleged activities at the height of the pandemic. Cuong was not the only one arrested last month, as four other accomplices were accused of giving bribes.

Vietjet Air Airbus A320 landing at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam.

Photo: Phuong D. Nguyen/Shutterstock

On the same day, Dang Nhat Duc, the Director of Top Agent Japan, Vu Hong Quang, the former Deputy Head of the Aviation Transport Department within the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Tran Thanh Nha, and Vu Hoang Dung were also reportedly put on house arrest on suspicion of bribery. According to Al Jazeera, Dung allegedly received over $900,000 in bribes to add companies to a list of repatriation flight providers.

Life sentences

The accusations follow an investigation that revealed the details of a COVID-19 repatriation bribery scandal, where personnel from numerous ministries and departments were reportedly sentenced for bribery and abusing power. After an 18-day trial, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced 54 people for giving, receiving, and soliciting bribes and obtaining property by fraud and abuse of power, according to VnExpress.

At least 20 officials and civil servants received nearly $7 million from around 100 businesses, according to Al Jazeera. The money was used “to solve administrative procedures for repatriation.”

Some accused reportedly received prison terms upwards of ten years or more, but others face a much longer penalty. Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, a former official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Hoang Van Hung, a former investigator at the Ministry of Public Security; Pham Trung Kien, a former secretary to the Deputy Minister of Health, and Vu Anh Tuan, the Deputy Head of the staff division of the immigration department, were imprisoned for life in the case, as reported by VnExpress.

More than $6 million in bribes

Nearly 400 repatriation flights were operated by Vietnamese airlines, including VietJet, from the beginning of the pandemic to mid-2021. The flights were conducted to allow Vietnam nationals to return from abroad as the COVID crisis shuttered most of the world. However, travelers reportedly dealt with complicated procedures to get on the flights and had to pay quarantine fees and tickets that were unreasonably priced.

VietJet Airbus A321neo

Photo: Airbus

20 businesses had reportedly been bribed more than 500 times to get the flights to be approved. According to VnExpress, the bribes totaled nearly $6.8 billion (VND165 billion). Al Jazeera reported that the total amount of bribery money involved amounted to $9.5 million, including around $2.7 million given to law enforcement officials in an effort to avoid prosecution.

Sources: VnExpress, Al Jazerra

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