SGGPO
On the afternoon of August 25, the People's Court of Da Nang City sentenced defendant Ton That Thanh (former Director of the Center for Disease Control - CDC Da Nang City) and two subordinates for the crime of "Embezzlement of property".
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| Defendant Ton That Thanh was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "Embezzlement of property" |
At the end of the first instance trial, the People's Court of Da Nang City sentenced defendant Ton That Thanh (former Director of the Center for Disease Control - CDC Da Nang City) to 11 years in prison; defendant Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan (former Head of the Testing Department of CDC Da Nang City) to 10 years in prison; defendant Le Thi Kim Chi (former employee of the Testing Department of CDC Da Nang City) to 5 years in prison for the crime of "Embezzlement of property".
According to the indictment, in 2020 and 2021, CDC Da Nang signed 16 procurement contracts with Viet A Technology Joint Stock Company (hereinafter referred to as Viet A Company, with Phan Quoc Viet as Director), a total of 81,350 manual extraction kits and 410,000 automatic extraction kits.
In addition to signing a contract to purchase Covid-19 test kits from Viet A Company, CDC Da Nang also received funding from other units.
During the process of mixing and using chemicals and biological products for Covid-19 testing, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan discovered that there would be a certain amount left over.
From there, Ms. Nhan informed Mr. Ton That Thanh and asked for the policy of not reporting the amount of chemicals, biological products, and surplus materials on the accounting system of the CDC Da Nang Center but selling them to Viet A Company to get money for personal use. This was agreed by Mr. Thanh.
Around the end of 2020, when Phan Quoc Viet came to Da Nang to support Covid-19 testing, Mr. Thanh and Ms. Nhan met to discuss the possibility of reselling some of these Covid-19 testing chemicals and biological products and were agreed.
After that, Ms. Nhan directed Le Thi Kim Chi to only report the consumption according to the manufacturer's packaging specifications, not to report the actual quantity of biological products and chemicals in stock at the Testing Department to the CDC Da Nang Center.
After having the surplus amount of chemicals and biological products left off the unit's books, Ms. Nhan and Chi sold them to Viet A Company.
Specifically, from January 30, 2021 to April 6, 2022, the total quantity of chemicals, biological products, and medical supplies that the defendants appropriated from CDC Da Nang included: 21,000 automatic extraction kits branded iVAaDNA/RNA Extraction Kit aM; 10,000 manual extraction kits branded iVAaRNA Extraction Kit P; 18,050 empty 1.5 ml tubes in the manual extraction kit of Viet A Company; 19,000 empty 1.5 ml tubes of SPL Korea; 37,500 empty 1.5 ml tubes of QSP USA; 2,400 PCR Covid 19 test kits branded LightPower IVASARS-CoV-2; 7,584 Standard TM M nCoV Real-Time Detection kits.
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Overview of the trial on August 25 |
The total value of the assets that the defendants appropriated was more than 5.2 billion VND. During the investigation, the police seized the number of kits and biological products kept in the warehouse with a total value of more than 700 million VND. Thus, the defendants' actions caused a loss of more than 4.5 billion VND to CDC Da Nang.
Up to now, the defendants have reimbursed more than 5.5 billion VND. Specifically, defendant Ton That Thanh has paid more than 4.5 billion VND, defendant Nhan 600 million VND and defendant Chi 350 million VND.
Realizing that the defendants have made many contributions during their work at the CDC Da Nang as well as in the city's Covid-19 prevention and control work, in particular, the defendants are aware of their criminal acts, always cooperate with the authorities during the investigation, and proactively remedy the damage they caused, the People's Court of Da Nang City decided to apply a special leniency and reduction policy for the three defendants Thanh, Nhan and Chi.
Previously, the representative of CDC Da Nang also asked for maximum reduction of punishment for the defendants because they had many achievements and contributions to the industry.
In his final words at the court, former Director of CDC Da Nang Ton That Thanh deeply apologized to all officials and employees of CDC and Da Nang Department of Health for affecting the city's achievements in fighting the epidemic.
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