Anti-corruption Facebooker is 'bribery mastermind'
Dak Nong police said that Mr. Tran Minh Loi (48 years old) had 'set a trap' for a Dak Nong provincial criminal police lieutenant to receive 60 million VND to 'run' bail for gambling defendants.
On September 29, Colonel Luong Ngoc Lep - Deputy Director of Dak Nong Provincial Police said that he had transferred the case file to the People's Procuracy of the same level to propose prosecuting Mr. Tran Minh Loi (48 years old, a specialist in reporting corruption in the Central Highlands) and 7 defendants related to the case of relatives giving money to the criminal police to help gamblers get bail.
The defendants were proposed to be prosecuted for the crimes of Bribery, Receiving Bribery and Abusing Influence over People in Power for Personal Gain. In particular, Mr. Loi is considered the mastermind of the crime of Bribery, with the motive of personal gain.
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According to the investigation, in January, Dak Mil District Police, Dak Nong arrested 6 gamblers in Thuan An Commune. Relatives of the gamblers called Lieutenant Lanh Thanh Binh (criminal police officer of the district police) to ask about applying for bail, and this officer "suggested to contribute money".
Through Facebook, Nguyen Xuan An (31 years old) knew that Mr. Loi often received petitions and denunciations on behalf of people about negative behaviors of officials, so he contacted him for help. Mr. Loi enthusiastically advised and guided An to film and take photos of the process of giving 60 million VND to this police officer.
When he had evidence of Lieutenant Binh's wrongdoing, Mr. Loi called the criminal police officer to threaten him to return the money, give him the money, and at the same time influence the gamblers to be released on bail. Fearing being denounced, Binh paid the money, but he could not help with the release on bail. A few days later, all the above images were posted by Mr. Loi on his personal Facebook page to denounce Lieutenant Binh's bribery.
On March 14, Dak Nong Provincial Police initiated a criminal case and prosecuted Binh for the crime of “Taking advantage of influence over people in positions of power for personal gain.” Five members of the gambler’s family and Mr. Loi were prosecuted for the crime of “Offering bribes.” The threat to extort more than 200 million VND from Loi, as alleged by Binh, was not considered a criminal offense due to insufficient grounds for prosecution.
"If defendant Loi only collected documents to provide immediately to the police or to put them in the press, his actions would not be a crime. However, he incited and organized money giving to others to collect evidence and then threatened the offender for personal gain, so he was determined to be the mastermind," Colonel Lep informed.
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| Benefits of being arrested. Photo: Kh. Uyen |
The investigation agency also determined that Mr. Loi was involved in the case of Giving and Receiving Bribes at Agribank Dai Loc Branch (Dak Lak). Specifically, in order to borrow a mortgage of 1.8 billion VND with a low interest rate, Mr. Loi gave director Nguyen Van Phuc 30 million VND.
Mr. Loi is the owner of the Facebook account "Fighting Internal Invasion", which has collected evidence and denounced many corruption cases of officials in Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces. Many of the cases that Mr. Loi denounced have been handled and resolved, and he wrote and posted them on his personal Facebook page.
According to VNE
