Vietnam jails 30 for corruption worth US$45 million
Former officials among those convicted as Hanoi presses sweeping anti-corruption campaign
A court in Vietnam on Friday jailed 30 people, including several former senior officials, over corruption that cost the state US$45 million, with one ex-official convicted of taking suitcases stuffed with cash bribes.
The communist nation’s crackdown on corruption in recent years has seen two presidents and three deputy prime ministers deposed, and top business leaders taken down.
On Friday, state media said a Hanoi court announced verdicts for 30 former officials and 11 businesspeople charged with bribery, abuse of power and violating bidding and contracting laws.
Thirty of the 41 were convicted of corruption that prosecutors say caused damages worth more than 1.16 trillion dong (US$44.6 million) to the state, Public Security News said.
The bribes themselves totalled far less.
Prosecutors said that between 2010 and 2024, the chairman of the Phuc Son Group, Nguyen Van Hau, spent over US$5 million bribing officials to win contracts in over a dozen multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects in three provinces.