Vietnam Starts Corruption Trial Against 41 People

A $45 million corruption trial against 41 people, including state officials, began in Vietnam on Tuesday as part of the communist state’s continued crackdown on graft, Agence France-Presse reported. 

The so-called “burning furnace” campaign targeting corruption has implicated dozens of senior government figures, including two presidents and three deputy prime ministers, and even top business figures. 

In this latest case, a court in Hanoi began holding hearings involving 30 former officials of northern Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, and central Quang Ngai provinces. The 11 others implicated in acts of corruption are businesspeople and company employees. 

The defendants are charged with various crimes, including bribery, abuse of power, and violating contracting and accounting laws. According to prosecutors, they have cost the state more than $44.6 million. 

Prosecutors say that between 2010 and 2024, the chairman of the Phuc Son Group, Nguyen Van Hau, spent more than $5 million bribing officials to secure contracts in 14 multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects in the three provinces. He allegedly brought suitcases of cash to the offices or homes of the officials to bribe them. 

Former party chief of Vinh Phuc province, Hoang Thi Thuy Lan, received the biggest bribe, totaling almost $2 million and delivered in a suitcase weighing over 130 pounds. 

In April, former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong was sentenced to six years in prison over “power abuse” in a solar energy development plan. 

Vuong confessed to accepting a $57,000 bribe in exchange for granting preferential treatment to solar power projects in the southern Ninh Thuan province. His family repaid the full amount before the court sentenced him.