Differentiate roles and behaviors to have appropriate forms of handling for defendants in the Viet A case

The Trial Panel assessed the nature, extent, consequences of the acts, personal background, aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the defendants... from which to differentiate roles and acts to have appropriate forms of handling. The actsviolate the lawhave been strictly handled in accordance with the rule of law. In addition, their efforts and dedication in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic have also been fully and fairly recognized by the Trial Council.

Urgent and unprecedented dangerous period

The first instance verdict stated that the case occurred in the context of the country and the world having to deal with an extremely dangerous pandemic (COVID-19) that has never been seen before. The entire political system had to brace itself against each outbreak in many different ways and measures. People were confused and scared; while the system of facilities, equipment, medical biological products, and medicines in each locality was still lacking, not enough to meet the demand. Even when the epidemic broke out, the medical infrastructure in many localities was overloaded many times over and fell into a state of "collapse". The trial panel determined that this was one of the main causes of the defendants' crimes in the case; most of which were acts of "violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences" occurring at a number of medical facilities in the provinces and cities.

The defendants' actions are considered very serious, violating public order and security, economic management safety, and the prestige and honor of relevant agencies and organizations; causing serious damage to the State budget and the mobilization of social resources; causing public outrage and dissatisfaction; causing degradation and corruption in the ethics, lifestyle and behavior of a number of cadres and Party members; and causing loss of trust and prestige of the Party and authorities at all levels. Therefore, it is necessary to prosecute, bring to trial and apply strict penalties to each defendant, for each crime, commensurate with the nature, level and consequences of the actions of each case, in order to punish individuals whose actions go against the interests of the State, the people and society; and to combat and prevent crime in general.

However, the Trial Panel also considered leniency and special leniency for defendants who committed crimes while performing urgent epidemic prevention tasks and did not benefit or benefited insignificantly.

Acknowledgement of the defendants' cooperation

During the investigation and at the trial, the defendants all confessed their violations, recognized their mistakes, and requested that the pandemic context be taken into account. The Trial Panel highly appreciated the positive attitudes and perceptions of all defendants; especially the active cooperation of most defendants with the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency to clarify the case and recognized it as a mitigating circumstance for the defendants.

To date, most of the defendants have voluntarily paid money or influenced their families to pay money and assets to remedy the consequences. Of these, former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long paid 2.25 million USD and 100 million VND; Trinh Thanh Hung (former Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Economic and Technical Sectors, Ministry of Science and Technology) paid 8 billion VND and 8 savings books worth nearly 4 billion VND; Phan Quoc Viet (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viet A Company) 100,000 USD and 200 million VND; former Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh paid 4.6 billion VND; Nguyen Van Trinh (former assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister) paid nearly 5 billion VND; former Secretary of the Hai Duong Provincial Party Committee Pham Xuan Thang paid 4 billion VND...

In addition to the violations, the Trial Panel also recognized that Viet A Company and the defendants Phan Quoc Viet, Vu Dinh Hiep (Viet's deputy), Le Trung Nguyen, Tran Tien Luc (Viet A employees)... contributed to repelling the epidemic in a number of provinces and cities.

The defendants Nguyen Thanh Long, Chu Ngoc Anh, Pham Xuan Thang, and Pham Manh Cuong (former Director of the Department of Health of Hai Duong province) have made great contributions to the work of disease prevention and control nationwide and in each locality. All defendants at CDCs in provinces and cities are especially active people, fighting on the front lines of COVID-19 prevention and control. Defendant Nguyen Manh Cuong submitted a resignation letter to CDC Hai Duong on June 21, 2021, but it was not until August 31, 2021 that he officially resigned due to the requirements of disease prevention and control.

The defendants' actions are relatively independent.

The Trial Panel assessed that in this case, the defendants committed crimes of complicity in each different act. Each defendant in each prosecuted act accepted the will and performed specific actions. Each of those actions is one of the links in the overall connection, which can directly or indirectly lead to consequences of damage or profit. The remaining defendants committed violations with different natures, levels, consequences, and roles.

Defendant Phan Quoc Viet is the organizer, operator, and director of all activities of Viet A Company and related companies; sets policies and requires employees to implement them. Employees of Viet A Company are salaried workers, committing violations under the direction of Phan Quoc Viet. Officers and employees at CDCs in the provinces are under great pressure from the direction of epidemic prevention and control from superiors, committing violations under administrative orders.

Throughout the entire course of the case, defendant Phan Quoc Viet had agreements, contacts, and collusion with a number of other subjects and defendants such as: Ho Anh Son at the Military Medical Research Institute - Military Medical Academy; Trinh Thanh Hung at the Ministry of Science and Technology; Nguyen Van Trinh at the Government Office; defendants Nguyen Huynh, Nguyen Thanh Long, Nguyen Minh Tuan, Nguyen Nam Lien at the Ministry of Health; Pham Duy Tuyen at the Hai Duong CDC at different stages and stages in the process of committing the crime.

However, the connection between these defendants is not completely close, there is no specific division of labor and tasks, and the behavior of each defendant at each stage and paragraph is relatively independent; on the other hand, the above defendants did not completely commit the same act and were prosecuted and convicted of the same crime, so there is not enough basis to apply the aggravating circumstance of "Organized crime" to the defendants.

Among the defendants, the Trial Panel determined that Phan Quoc Viet took advantage of the epidemic situation to commit the crime, so it is necessary to apply the aggravating circumstance of "Taking advantage of the epidemic situation to commit the crime".

Apply lenient policy

Based on the analysis of the merits and crimes of each case, the Trial Panel decided to apply a sentence below the lowest level of the penalty framework for defendants with many mitigating circumstances, who have returned all (or most) of the money they have benefited; defendants who are subordinates, salaried employees, who follow instructions, obey, depend on, and commit crimes as secondary accomplices. For a number of defendants who are secondary accomplices in the cases, especially those who have not benefited or have benefited insignificantly, have voluntarily declared and surrendered before being prosecuted, or have not benefited but have voluntarily paid a sum of money to compensate for the damage, the Trial Panel also considered imposing a prison sentence equal to the time they were detained or applying a suspended sentence, allowing the defendants to be reformed locally.

In particular, the Trial Panel considered and decided to apply a lenient policy of exempting criminal liability for defendant Nguyen Thanh Danh (former Director of CDC Binh Duong). Although he could have retired early, when requested and suggested, defendant Danh still voluntarily stayed with CDC Binh Duong to fight the epidemic. As a leader of CDC, the defendant was fully aware that his actions were illegal and could be prosecuted, but he dared to think and act for the health and lives of his compatriots. On the other hand, in the case, defendant Nguyen Thanh Danh did not seek personal gain. He repeatedly refused to receive money and thank-you gifts from Viet A and also warned his subordinates about accepting thank-you gifts.

Recovering assets for the State

The investigation determined that Viet A Company inflated the price when negotiating prices and used that price to sell test kits to individuals and organizations many times higher (compared to production costs, profits and taxes). Just counting the number of test kits that had been signed and paid for, Viet A Company illegally profited 1,235 billion VND (not including the test kits sold to the Military Medical Academy). All of this money was transferred to Viet A Company and Phan Quoc Viet was the person who operated and decided on the use of all of the money.

In principle, the Trial Panel ordered Phan Quoc Viet to return all of the above illegal profits to the State treasury. However, before or after receiving the above benefits, Phan Quoc Viet directly or directed subordinates to use them to bribe individuals totaling more than 106 billion VND; paid commissions/contract discounts to individuals in several provinces and cities worth nearly 67 billion VND, along with many other amounts paid to Nguyen Van Trinh (200,000 USD), Pham Xuan Thang (100,000 USD), Chu Ngoc Anh (200,000 USD)... All of these amounts were determined to be illegal profits and the recipients had to return them to the State treasury (totaling nearly 194 billion VND).

The first instance judgment determined that Phan Quoc Viet and his accomplices violated bidding regulations, causing damage to public health facilities in 19 provinces and cities nationwide of VND402 billion (not including damage at the Military Medical Academy and the damage related to the separation test of VN DAT Company of VND29.6 billion). In principle, according to the request of the civil plaintiffs, the Trial Panel required those who committed the same violation and caused the damage to jointly compensate the public health facilities as requested.

However, the entire amount of the damage of 402 billion VND was determined to be part of the amount of money that Viet A Company had illegally benefited from (1,235 billion VND), so the Trial Council ordered defendant Phan Quoc Viet to compensate in full. As for the damage at CDC Binh Duong related to VN DAT Company, the Trial Council ordered defendant Nguyen Truong Giang (General Director of VNDAT Company) and Phan Quoc Viet to jointly compensate.

Regarding the request to force individuals and organizations that have purchased test kits from Viet A Company to pay the outstanding amount and other issues, the first instance judgment decided that Viet A Company can negotiate and reach an agreement with units and individuals that have not paid for the test kits (based on the price of the test kits determined in this case as 143,461 VND/test) to pay each other. Other disputes and problems between Viet A Company and related organizations and individuals, if they cannot reach an agreement, have the right to file a lawsuit with a competent court according to civil proceedings.

The Viet A case has temporarily ended with much joy and sadness. The joy of those who were released right at the trial, the sadness of those who continue to stay behind iron doors, isolated from family and society. But they all share the same sadness and regret for their actions that, if they could do it again, they would have behaved differently and at that time, the rule of law would be the top priority.