How much money did the business bribe to get a "rescue flight"?

In the conclusion of the investigation into the "rescue flight" case of the Ministry of Public Security , the Security Investigation Agency pointed out the acts of Bribery and Bribery Brokerage of the group of subjects belonging to the business sector.

According to the investigation, statistics show that there are about more than 100 businesses licensed to operate flights to repatriate Vietnamese citizens, but in reality, only about 20 business groups are actually the units that deploy flights after being approved.

The rest are businesses that lend legal entities or apply for flight licenses, then sell the right to organize flights to other businesses.

For businesses to organize flights, they must go through many different steps and stages according to the following procedures: Having written approval from the Government Office , Working Group of 4/5 Ministries; having written approval of the medical isolation policy from the People's Committees of provinces and cities.

Doanh nghiệp đã hối lộ bao nhiêu tiền để được bay giải cứu? - 1 — A rescue flight (Illustration photo: VNA).

During that time, the enterprise must also sign a contract and deposit money for renting an aircraft with the airline; sign a contract and deposit money for renting a hotel... Therefore, if the Government Office, the Working Group of 4 Ministries/5 Ministries and localities do not approve the flight and the medical isolation policy, the enterprise will suffer great financial losses.

At that time, the context of the Covid-19 pandemic caused many difficulties for businesses, with no other source of income or jobs ; while they still had to pay expenses such as renting premises, employee salaries, etc. Therefore, when asked or made difficult to get approval and organize flights, business representatives in many forms (directly or through intermediaries) gave large amounts of money to those with duties and powers.

The investigation conclusion of the Ministry of Public Security has proposed that the People's Procuracy prosecute 21 people, who are leaders and officials of enterprises that organized flights to repatriate Vietnamese citizens, for the crimes of Bribery, Bribery Brokerage and Fraudulent Appropriation of Property.

Of these, Le Hong Son and Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang (General Director and Deputy General Director of Bluesky Company) were the two defendants who gave the most bribes, with the amount of more than 38.5 billion VND. Following was Hoang Dieu Mo (General Director of An Binh Company), who gave a bribe of more than 34.6 billion VND. The total amount of bribes given by the defendants, who were representatives of the enterprises, was more than 216 billion VND.

Tran Minh Tuan (Director of Thai Hoa Company) was found guilty of fraud and property appropriation.

The investigation concluded that, although Tuan had no connections, he still introduced himself to Pham Bich Hang (Deputy Director of the International Travel Company) as having many connections, being able to apply for flight permits at ministries and branches and request approval for the policy of receiving medical quarantine.

After that, Hang gave Tuan money many times to take care of things, but Tuan used it for personal purposes.

In August 2021, Hang and Tuan reunited. Hang transferred 12.8 billion VND to Tuan so that Tuan could bribe the leaders to get permission for the International Travel Company to organize flights and get approval for the medical quarantine policy. Tuan also used part of the money to pay and deposit for renting the plane.

The Ministry of Public Security said that the total amount of money that Tuan received from Hang for the purpose of bribery was more than 6.59 billion VND. However, Tuan only used less than 1 billion VND as agreed and appropriated nearly 5.7 billion VND remaining.

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