A Vietnamese court has sentenced former Xuyen Viet Oil director and chairwoman Mai Thi Hong Hanh to 30 years in prison for orchestrating a scheme that caused at least 1.46 trillion dong ($57.6 million) in state asset losses and subsequently bribing officials to conceal the crime, Bloomberg reports.
The sentencing, reported Friday by VnExpress, is part of a wider crackdown on corruption within the country.
Also convicted in the case was Le Duc Tho, the former Communist Party chief for Ben Tre province, who received a 28-year sentence for bribery and abuse of power. Do Thang Hai, a former deputy trade minister, was sentenced to three years for accepting bribes. The court deemed the defendants’ crimes exceptionally serious, citing damage to government agencies and violations of national energy security.
The trial comes as real estate tycoon Truong My Lan awaits a decision on her appeal against a death sentence handed down in April for embezzling $12.3 billion – Vietnam’s largest-ever fraud case. Lan’s appeal is expected to be resolved on Tuesday, and she has publicly pleaded for leniency and vowed to repay a portion of the stolen funds.
Lan’s case is the most high-profile to date in the Communist Party’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign, which has ensnared hundreds of officials and business executives, including three deputy prime ministers and two presidents.
Hanh and her associates were found guilty of paying approximately 31 billion dong ($1.2 million) in bribes to secure preferential treatment in licensing and procurement, and to overlook violations related to the petroleum price stabilization fund. The court ordered Hanh to repay more than 1.4 trillion dong in damages. In total, 15 individuals were convicted in the case, receiving sentences ranging from 18 months’ suspended jail time to four years.
Court testimony detailed Hanh’s sophisticated methods of bribery, including targeted gifts tailored to the individual preferences of officials. These ranged from substantial sums of money and luxury items to seemingly insignificant tokens such as soy sauce or towels, according to the Phap Luat news outlet.
