Subordinates reveal violations of former minister Nguyen Bac Son

On the afternoon of December 16 at the Hanoi People's Court, Mr. Son was taken out of the courtroom for isolation when former Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan confessed to wrongdoings when buying AVG shares.

Mr. Tuan stated that when he was Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, he was not assigned to be in charge of the MobiFone project to buy AVG but "was often assigned work by Mr. Son". From here, Mr. Tuan was the one who signed the official dispatch sent to the Ministry of Public Security requesting to put the project in the "Confidential" document category. Mr. Tuan also signed the appraisal report and signed Decision 236/QD-BTTTT agreeing to allow MobiFone to invest in AVG...

"Before signing document 236, I went to see the Minister and said that the responsibility for signing was not mine, but he replied that he was reassured because he had written his approval. Therefore, the Minister assigned me to sign, so I still signed," Mr. Tuan declared, saying that this decision led to the consequences like today.

Mr. Tuan also stated: "Mr. Nguyen Bac Son directed me and the Director of the Radio and Television Department to verbally notify AVG Chairman Pham Nhat Vu that AVG shares must not be sold to foreigners."

At the trial on the afternoon of December 16, defendants Pham Dinh Trong (former head of the Enterprise Management Department), Le Nam Tra (former chairman of MobiFone), and Cao Duy Hai (former general director of MobiFone) also simultaneously stated that they "had to follow Mr. Son's instructions" to commit illegal acts.

Defendant Pham Dinh Trong affirmed that Mr. Son assigned him a draft of an official dispatch requesting the Ministry of Public Security's opinion on putting the AVG purchase transaction into the "Confidential" category. Decision 236/QD-BTTTT was also assigned to him by Mr. Son.

According to the testimony of former MobiFone chairman Le Nam Tra, Mr. Son "suggested" that at the end of January 2015, MobiFone asked the Ministry of Information and Communications to approve the investment policy for television services by acquiring a digital television company.

In the meeting a month later, Minister Nguyen Bac Son continued to "suggest": "Mr. Vu of AVG wants to sell shares in accordance with MobiFone's requirements, please let us study and consider." When the project was implemented, Mr. Tra became Chairman of the Board of Members, and Mr. Cao Duy Hai replaced him as General Director.

When questioned about why he knew that Decision 236/QD-BTTTT violated the law but still implemented it and directed his subordinates to do so, Mr. Tra stated: "With the Ministry of Information and Communications signing this decision, we understood that the Ministry allowed it, so we followed the instructions," Mr. Tra said.

Defendant Tra stated that the authority to sign the contract to buy AVG shares should have belonged to Mr. Hai. But before signing, he had lunch with Mr. Son and was asked: "The contract with AVG is about an hour away, how are you guys preparing?". He reported to General Director Cao Duy Hai to sign, but Mr. Son said: "You just sign it."

Mr. Cao Duy Hai said he had requested to postpone the time to re-examine the price because he knew about AVG's weak financial situation, but Mr. Tra and Son said "this is good, there is a policy so it needs to be implemented quickly".

The Supreme People's Procuracy determined that Mr. Nguyen Bac Son directly directed the preparation, appraisal, approval and implementation of MobiFone's television investment project in AVG. Mr. Son was aware that the investment policy was under the authority of the Prime Minister, and that the Ministry of Information and Communications did not have the function of appraising and evaluating the purchase price and investment efficiency of the project. However, he still directed the head of the department, Pham Dinh Trong, to establish an appraisal team and hold a meeting to agree on the purchase price of 95% of AVG shares, which was nearly VND8,900 billion.

When the new Prime Minister approved the investment policy, the project had not yet been appraised, Mr. Son still directed Deputy Minister Truong Minh Tuan to sign the Decision approving the project. Mr. Son directed MobiFone to sign the agreement and the contract to transfer shares with AVG in 2015.

Mr. Son's drastic but illegal instructions caused the state to lose nearly 6,600 billion VND because the real value of AVG was inflated, the Supreme People's Procuracy stated.

The first-instance trial of 14 defendants in the MobiFone-AVG acquisition project took place at the Hanoi People's Court from December 16 to 31. Among the defendants, two former Ministers of Information and Communications, Nguyen Bac Son and Truong Minh Tuan, were prosecuted for two crimes.Violations of regulations on public investment management cause serious consequences(Article 220 of the Penal Code),Take bribes(Article 354) with a penalty of 20 years in prison, life imprisonment or death penalty.

Former AVG chairman Pham Nhat Vu was tried for crimesBribery(Article 364), facing a penalty of 12-20 years in prison. Among the remaining 10 defendants, there are 5 former deputy general directors of MobiFone.