Former Vietnam Health Minister Gets 18-year Prison Sentence In COVID-19 Test Kits Bribery Scandal

Vietnam’s former Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has been handed an 18-year prison sentence by the Hanoi People’s Court on Friday, following his conviction in a major COVID-19 test kits bribery scandal. Local news outlet, VNExpress reported.

Long, who served as Deputy Minister of Health from 2011 to 2018 and later resumed the role in 2020 and became Minister of health in that same year, until his expulsion from the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2022, was found guilty of accepting bribes amounting to $2.25 million. The charges were related to his alleged involvement in allowing the medical technology company Viet Á to inflate the prices of COVID-19 test kits by approximately three times their actual cost.

The scandal unfolded against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, with Viet Á Technology Corporation colluding with government officials, including Long, to sell COVID-19 RT-PCR test kits. Subsequently, the company imported rapid test kits falsely marketed as locally made and sold them to provincial health departments and hospitals at a substantial mark-up during the years 2020 and 2021. The revelation of this corruption in late 2021 led to the dismissal of several high-ranking officials, including Nguyen Thanh Long, who was praised for being the Chief strategist who helped Vietnam fight COVID-19 effectively.

The implications of the scandal extended beyond the health sector, resulting in a major political shakeup. Deputy Prime Ministers Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam were removed from their positions, and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned in 2023 amidst growing public dissatisfaction.

The aftermath of the scandal triggered a series of investigations and legal proceedings starting from 2021, ultimately resulting in the conviction of Nguyen Thanh Long and other 37 officials in the government and the officials of the company who got sentences ranging from 3 years to 29 years.

According to the prosecutors, the defendants’ actions were extremely serious, violating public order, economic management safety, and eroding the reputation and prestige of the related agencies.