On April 26, the People’s Court in the Mekong delta province of Bac Lieu sentenced four of the province’s prominent senior officials to prison, for taking bribes and disobeying the state law.
In a two day trial, the court indicted Bui Thanh Hong,60, former head of the People’s Committee of Bac Lieu Province to three years in prison and Nguyen Hoang Linh, 34, an official of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade to seven years, both on charges of taking bribes.
Pham Van Quang, 55, former director of the Bac Lieu Housing Development and Trading Company was sentenced to 14 years, and Tran Thanh Tung, 39, deputy director of the same company to 13 years, on charges of offering bribes.
When the Bac Lieu Housing Development and Trading Company was privatised in 2008, Quang and Tung offered bribe to Hong and Linh, to grease their palms in order to resolve all formalities and procedures to operate the company.
According to the court indictment, from September 2008 to April 2009, Hong received a total sum of VND120 million (US$ 5,783) from Quang and Tung, while Linh received VND160 million.
