Former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital declared that 21 billion VND "suddenly" appeared in his account.

On the afternoon of November 29, the trial of defendants Nguyen Minh Quan (former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital) and Nguyen Van Loi (Director of Nguyen Tam Production Service Trading Company Limited) was held for the crimes of Embezzlement of property and Money Laundering.

During the interrogation, the defendants, who were Mr. Quan's employees, admitted to committing the crimes as alleged in the indictment. For his part, the former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital said that the indictment was not objectively true and did not reflect the nature of the incident.

Cựu Giám đốc Bệnh viện TP Thủ Đức khai 21 tỷ đồng bỗng có trong tài khoản - 1 — Defendant Quan in court (Photo: Tho Moc).

Previously, defendant Loi stated that he acted under Mr. Quan's direction to commit the violations. After the hospital settled the payments, Loi transferred them to Mr. Quan and his wife as requested.

When questioned by the court, Mr. Quan said that the above statement of defendant Loi was not true. According to Quan, the defendant saw Loi working at a car wash so he brought him to work as an employee at Ngoc Dao Company (Mr. Quan's wife was the director) with the aim of creating a job for this person.

Next, the former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital said that in 2005 he intended to quit his government job and established Ngoc Dao Company. After being appointed as deputy director, he transferred the company's name to his wife.

Quan said that while working at the company, Loi borrowed money from him and his wife many times. Because they were so close, the loans had no supporting documents.

"The defendant did not fail to confess honestly and did not push responsibility onto his subordinates, but the essence of the matter is that the defendant did not know what the incident in the case was," said defendant Quan.

Cựu Giám đốc Bệnh viện TP Thủ Đức khai 21 tỷ đồng bỗng có trong tài khoản - 2 — Defendant Quan said the indictment was incorrect (Photo: Xuan Duy).

The case file shows that after embezzling VND103 billion, Mr. Quan bought a series of real estates and cars. In court, he admitted that he bought villas in Nha Trang City (Khanh Hoa) and District 1 (HCMC). Regarding the source of the money, the defendant said that when he wanted to buy the property, he went to collect the debt from Loi. Because he did not have the money, Loi borrowed from the bank to pay.

"The defendant claims he is innocent but spent millions of dollars to escape punishment. The defendant does not need to explain further, the panel of judges will evaluate the entire content of the case," the judge said harshly.

According to the records, Mr. Quan directed Loi to buy two luxury cars and sell them. However, in court, the former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital denied this.

When asked, defendant Loi said that during his work, he did not borrow money from Mr. Quan and his wife.

Tran Ngoc Diem (defendant Quan's wife) stated that before being prosecuted, she did not know about her husband's business. Regarding the money transferred by Loi, Ms. Diem said she thought it was profit from the business.

When the court asked Ngoc Dao Company how it could make a profit without any business activities, defendant Diem did not answer.

Faced with a series of subsequent questions, this woman admitted to the wrongdoing as alleged in the indictment.

According to the indictment, from 2016 to 2020, Thu Duc City Hospital organized bidding for 31 medical equipment procurement packages to serve medical examination and treatment. Of these, 28 packages had approved winning bids and completed payments with a total value of more than 346.2 billion VND.

To intervene and take over the entire above mentioned bidding package, defendant Nguyen Minh Quan directed Nguyen Van Loi (an employee of Quan and his wife) to establish and use "backyard" companies.

The indictment also determined that the defendant Quan took advantage of his position as director and head of the hospital to direct and pressure his subordinates and members of the bidding committees to sign to legalize bidding documents, "collusion, fraud in bidding, and failure to ensure transparency in bidding activities".

The investigation results determined that from 2016 to 2020, the group of 4 companies managed by Loi participated in bidding and were the default winners of 27/28 bidding packages at Thu Duc City Hospital, with a total value of more than 345.2 billion VND. After deducting the purchase price and salary expenses, bank loan interest, taxes, office expenses, etc., the amount of money Mr. Quan embezzled was 103.6 billion VND.

Quan directed Loi to transfer or withdraw cash to him or Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem.

Source