Former hospital director jailed for $4.2M embezzlement

Nguyen Minh Quan, Thu Duc Hospital’s former director, had pressured his employees into helping companies that had connections to him win bids in various projects at the hospital, the HCMC People’s Court heard.

Quan received 16 years for embezzlement and five for money laundering.

His accomplice Nguyen Van Loi received 15 years imprisonment.

Quan had committed acts violating the Bidding Laws in the procurement of medical supplies and equipment at Thu Duc Hospital between 2016 and 2020, causing serious losses to the state budget, investigation found.

Over a period of four years, Quan appointed Loi’s companies, established based on Quan’s orders, to win 27 bids of such and paid a total of VND345 billion ($14.2 million) to Loi’s businesses. This figure was between 30-50% higher than the market price for the medical supplies and equipment.

Loi then transferred VND103 billion, the difference between the actual accumulative price and the amount Thu Duc Hospital paid him, to Quan and his wife. This money was then spent on Quan and his wife’s personal purposes, including purchasing recreational real estate properties in the coastal Nha Trang City, real estate properties in HCMC, and automobiles.

Some among these assets were then sold for money to bribe police officers investigating bidding violations at the hospital.

Quan had escaped bribery charges despite having paid two anti-corruption officials $3.7 million to escape bidding violation accusations, because he had reported the matter to the police before he was found out.

The two former officers were sentenced to six and nine years at a trial in Hanoi in September last year.