Former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital sentenced to 21 years in prison, wife gets suspended sentence

On the morning of December 1, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court announced the verdict in the first instance trial of defendant Nguyen Minh Quan (former Director of Thu Duc City Hospital) and his accomplices in the case of Embezzlement of assets, Money laundering, and Violation of bidding regulations causing serious consequences at Thu Duc City Hospital.

The panel sentenced defendant Nguyen Minh Quan to 21 years in prison and Nguyen Van Loi to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering. In addition to the above sentence, defendant Quan was banned from holding positions related to bidding for 3 years and ordered to compensate Thu Duc City Hospital 102.52 billion VND.

Defendant Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem (51 years old, former Director of Ngoc Dao Company - defendant Quan's wife) was sentenced to 3 years in prison for Money Laundering but given a suspended sentence.

Defendant Nguyen Minh Quan. (Photo: Nhat Thinh)

For the group of crimes of Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences, the People's Court sentenced: 2 former Deputy Directors of Thu Duc City Hospital: defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc 2 years and 6 months in prison, Nguyen Lan Anh 3 years and 6 months in prison.

Defendant Ngo Truong Ngoc Bich, former Head of Medical Equipment and Supplies Department (Thu Duc City Hospital) was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison. Defendant Dang Thi Hien, former Chief Accountant (Thu Duc City Hospital) was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison.

Defendant Nguyen Huy Viet, employee of the Medical Equipment and Supplies Department (Thu Duc City Hospital) was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Defendant Tran Hau Nghia, Director of Hai Dang Medical Equipment Company Limited, was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Previously, in the indictment and proposed sentence, the representative of the People's Procuracy requested the People's Court to sentence defendant Nguyen Minh Quan to 16-17 years in prison for the crime of embezzlement of property, 5-6 years in prison for the crime of money laundering, with a total sentence of 21-23 years in prison.

Nguyen Van Loi 13 - 14 years in prison for embezzlement, 3 - 4 years in prison for money laundering, total sentence of 16 - 18 years in prison. Defendant Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem (defendant Quan's wife) 2 years 6 months - 3 years 6 months in prison for money laundering.

For the group of crimes of "violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences", the representative of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy proposed the following sentences: For the two former Deputy Directors of Thu Duc City Hospital, including: defendant Nguyen Thi Ngoc was proposed to be sentenced to 2 years 6 months - 3 years 6 months in prison; Nguyen Lan Anh from 3 years 6 months - 4 years 6 months in prison.

Defendant Ngo Truong Ngoc Bich, former Head of Medical Equipment and Supplies Department (Thu Duc City Hospital) was recommended to be sentenced to 3 years and 6 months to 4 years and 6 months in prison. Defendant Dang Thi Hien, former Chief Accountant (Thu Duc City Hospital) was recommended to be sentenced to 3 - 4 years in prison.

Defendant Nguyen Huy Viet, an employee of the Medical Equipment and Supplies Department (Thu Duc City Hospital), was recommended to be sentenced to 2 years and 6 months to 3 years and 6 months in prison. Defendant Tran Hau Nghia, Director of Hai Dang Medical Equipment Company Limited, was recommended to be sentenced to 2 years and 6 months to 3 years and 6 months in prison.

Regarding civil liability, although Nguyen Van Loi transferred more than 103.6 billion VND to Nguyen Minh Quan, through comparison and inspection of data and books, Loi's 4 companies received 102.52 billion VND through winning the auction of 27 bid packages at Thu Duc City Hospital.

Therefore, based on the principle of benefiting the defendant, the People's Procuracy determined that the amount of money that the defendant Quan had appropriated and had to compensate the hospital was 102.52 billion VND.

According to the indictment, in order to intervene and take over the entire bidding package, Nguyen Minh Quan (at that time the Director of Thu Duc Hospital) directed Nguyen Van Loi (an employee of Quan and his wife) to establish backyard companies, named Nguyen Tam, Trung Dung, Thanh Vuong SG and Ngoc Dao.

Quan directed Loi to assign employees to create false and roundabout sales contracts between these companies to increase the price of equipment and machinery.

Loi then used three of the four companies to submit bids with inflated prices for machinery and equipment. When preparing the bidding documents, Loi intentionally prepared a document with better criteria than the other departments, with the aim of selecting the winning company.

The indictment also determined that defendant Quan took advantage of his position as director and head of the hospital to direct and pressure his subordinates; "colluded in bidding, cheated in bidding, and did not ensure transparency in bidding activities".

From 2016 to 2020, the group of four companies managed by Loi participated in bidding and won 27/28 packages at Thu Duc Hospital, with a total value of more than 345.2 billion VND. After deducting the purchase price and expenses, the amount of money Quan embezzled was 103.6 billion VND.

To conceal the source of the embezzled money, Quan directed Loi to withdraw cash, transfer money to Quan's account and defendant Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem (defendant Quan's wife) or transfer money directly to the company's account.

The indictment also determined that defendant Nguyen Tran Ngoc Diem asked Loi to transfer more than 67.9 billion VND to her. Of which, Quan and Diem used 51.7 billion VND to buy real estate, luxury cars...

Hoang Tho

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