Former minister admits receiving USD3m in bribe

Former Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Bac Son, has admitted receiving USD3m in bribe from chairman of the Audio Visual Global JSC, Pham Nhat Vu.

Former Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Bac Son, has admitted receiving USD3m in bribe from chairman of the Audio Visual Global JSC (AVG), Pham Nhat Vu.

  

Former ministers of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan (left) and Nguyen Bac Son

The police proposed to prosecute 14 people for violating regulations on the management and use of public capital leading to serious consequences, and bribing in the Mobifone-AVG acquisition case.

Former AVG chairman Pham Nhat Vu was accused of bribing former Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Bac Son. Vu admitted that he had called, texted and urged Son to quickly issue directives many times. After the transaction, Vu went to Son's house in Hanoi and gave Son USD3m. Son said he then transferred the money to his daughter from between USD300,000 to USD400,000 each time.

Son admitted that during Tet and other holidays, he received VND200m (USD8,696) from Cao Duy Hai, Mobifone former CEO and USD200,000 from Le Nam Tra, Mobifone's former board chairman.

Truong Minh Tuan, Minister of Information and Communication from 2016 to 2018 and who served as Son's deputy minister, said Vu had called and urged him to quickly finish the Mobifone-AVG case many times. Vu then gave Tuan USD200,000 since he is the direct signatory of the decision.

Son offered to return VND500m (USD21,510) and Tuan offered to return VND2.1bn to deal with the consequences.

Mobifone's former director and deputy director have been arrested for wrongdoings over the loss-making purchase of the AVG.

In August 2016, the Government Inspectorate was asked to investigate the acquisition of AVG by Mobifone and announced that they had found many violations. Mobifone and AVG agreed to cancel the deal and refund the amount received in the VND8.89trn (USD395m) failed acquisition.

AVG has faced continued difficulties since it was established. In 2015, it accumulated a loss of more than VND1.6trn (USD70m), 45% of its charter capital. When proposing to buy 95% of AVG's shares, Mobifone omitted the financial difficulties and failed to follow the bidding procedures in choosing consultants for the case.

It was concluded that Mobifone, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and related agencies had committed many violations in assessing AVG's financial situation and choosing consultants, allegedly leading to state budget losses of VND7trn (USD308m).