Viet A boss spends tens of billions of dong to thank when test kit is circulated

Viet A receives 1 billion VND for producing 20,000 Covid-19 test kits.

On the afternoon of January 3rd, the trial of 38 defendants in the Viet A mega-case entered the questioning phase.

Before questioning, the Trial Panel requested the police to isolate the defendants Trinh Thanh Hung, former Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology for Economic and Technical Sectors, Ministry of Science and Technology; former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long; Nguyen Huynh, former Deputy Head of the Drug Price Management Department, Drug Administration of Vietnam, Ministry of Health; and Nguyen Van Trinh, former official of the Government Office .

As the first person to stand before the witness stand to answer questions from the panel of judges, defendant Phan Quoc Viet stated that he established Viet A Company in 2007.

When it was established, this company primarily operated in the field of trading and manufacturing biological products and medical equipment.

Besides Viet A Company, Phan Quoc Viet also established many other companies such as An Viet Company Limited... all operating in the healthcare sector.

Most of these companies are directly managed by Vietnamese people.

Ông chủ Việt Á chi hàng chục tỷ đồng để cảm ơn khi kit test được lưu hành - 1 — Defendant Phan Quoc Viet is escorted to the courtroom (Photo: Hai Nam).

In late January and early February 2020, defendant Trinh Thanh Hung called Phan Quoc Viet, suggesting that he participate with the Military Medical Academy in a research project to produce Covid-19 test kits.

At that time, Mr. Hung explained that participating in the project was to combat the epidemic, and that Viet A needed to participate because the company met the requirements of the Ministry of Health . Subsequently, Viet agreed to participate.

In early February 2020, Viet instructed his subordinates to go to Hanoi for a meeting on a research project to produce Covid-19 test kits, chaired by Mr. Pham Cong Tac (former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology).

Following this meeting, Viet A participated in the research and production of 20,000 Covid-19 test kits within one month.

In court, Phan Quoc Viet testified that at that time, the Military Medical Academy transferred some documents and procedures related to test kits to Viet A Company.

Viet A then used this documentation and process to optimize and research the development of a Covid-19 test kit.

By mid-February 2020, Viet A had developed a test kit. Subsequently, Phan Quoc Viet and his subordinates took the product to Hanoi to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing.

At the same time, the Military Medical Academy was also researching test kits, but their product was not as optimal as Viet A's.

"According to the contract, Viet A was tasked with researching and producing 20,000 test kits. Viet A received 1 billion VND for labor and approximately 8-9 billion VND worth of raw materials from the Military Medical Academy to produce these test kits," Viet testified.

Ông chủ Việt Á chi hàng chục tỷ đồng để cảm ơn khi kit test được lưu hành - 2 — The defendants are escorted to the courtroom (Photo: Nguyen Hai).

After testing at the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Viet A's test kit yielded a "pass" result.

Viet stated that, because the Covid-19 pandemic was completely new to the world at that time, the Ministry of Health requested Viet A to conduct the acceptance testing of phase 1 of the project. Subsequently, the Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, accepted the phase 1 project, and the results were "satisfactory".

By March 4th, Viet A was granted temporary permission to distribute its Covid-19 test kits, and official distribution will only begin on December 4th.

Thanks to the efforts of various parties, the test kits are being made available for distribution as soon as possible.

The General Director of Viet A Company explained that the licensing process was slow because it was the first time the pandemic had appeared, and all parties were cautious and wanted the product to be the best and most optimal.

Phan Quoc Viet admitted that the process of obtaining official approval for the test kit encountered some difficulties.

Subsequently, the defendant asked Mr. Nguyen Huynh, former Deputy Head of the Drug Pricing Management Department, Drug Administration of Vietnam (Ministry of Health), to influence several parties, but the matter was not resolved smoothly.

In addition, defendant Trinh Thanh Hung also influenced some parties to get the test kits released early, but Viet was not aware of the results.

Phan Quoc Viet testified that he had known Mr. Hung since 2013, and had known defendants Nguyen Van Trinh, Nguyen Thanh Long, and Nguyen Huynh since 2017.

After the test kit was officially released and he received money from its sales, Viet confessed to giving Trinh Thanh Hung money twice, totaling $350,000.

Viet's purpose in giving the money to Mr. Hung was to express gratitude and appreciation for his enthusiastic assistance to Viet A Company during the research project.

In addition, Phan Quoc Viet also gave defendant Nguyen Van Trinh 200,000 USD as a thank you and a token of appreciation, because "they are both East Asians."

Specifically, the General Director of Viet A Company gave Nguyen Huynh more than 2 million USD and 4 billion VND in cash at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.

"The defendant and Nguyen Huynh were close friends. At that time, Nguyen Huynh shared information about giving money to Mr. Long (Nguyen Thanh Long, former Minister of Health)," Viet testified about the reason for giving money to Nguyen Huynh.

According to the General Director of Viet A Company, the money given to the defendant Nguyen Huynh was borrowed from friends.

Later, Viet himself brought the money from Saigon to Hanoi by air.

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