Prosecutor throws bribe money into... toilet

This prosecutor received bribes right at the office. When discovered, he put the money in the motel toilet to destroy the evidence, but still could not escape punishment.

On May 5, Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Court sentenced defendant Le Ngoc Pho (former Prosecutor of Nha Trang City People's Procuracy) to 7 years in prison for accepting bribes.

Defendant Le Ngoc Pho, former Prosecutor of Nha Trang City People's Procuracy, Khanh Hoa, in court. Photo: HV

According to the indictment, at around 4:50 p.m. on July 7, 2016, after receiving the complaint, the police conducted an administrative inspection at room 205, P. motel in Vinh Ngoc commune, Nha Trang. During the inspection, there were 2 people in the room, Pho and a woman, along with 10 million VND thrown in the toilet in the bathroom. Pho said that he had received this amount of money from the mother of the defendant Vo Thi Kim Anh (in the case of illegal drug trafficking) at the People's Reception Office of the Nha Trang City People's Procuracy before.

During the investigation, Pho and related subjects confessed that Nguyen Quoc Tien knew Pho, the prosecutor assigned to investigate and prosecute the drug case in which Vo Thi Kim Anh was the defendant. Tien contacted Pho to discuss the request for a reduced sentence for Kim Anh. Tien called Pho and Pho agreed to help and spent 200 million VND.

After the discussion, on July 4, 2016, Pho entered the Nha Trang City Police Detention Center to extract the suspect Kim Anh to ask about the crime to see if she could be released or have her sentence reduced. Then, Pho used his phone to give Kim Anh to contact her family. Pho told Kim Anh that her family was outside trying to "fix the case" and was looking for a way to reduce her sentence. Over the phone, Kim Anh told her mother and sister outside to try to fix the case.

At around 3:30 p.m. on July 7, 2016, Pho asked Kim Anh's mother to come to the Nha Trang City People's Procuracy headquarters to give Pho money. There, Kim Anh's mother and Pho re-negotiated the amount of money needed to pay for the case and agreed that if there was no intermediary (Tien), Pho would reduce the amount by 10 to 20 million VND. She gave Pho 10 million VND in advance and said that the rest of the money that the family was borrowing would be given. Pho received 10 million VND and put it in his pocket, then went to P.'s motel to meet his girlfriend. Later, the police came to check and discovered the incident.

In addition to sentencing Pho to prison, Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Court also recommended that the police and the People's Procuracy consider criminally prosecuting Tien for bribery brokerage.

According to PLO