Official jailed 13 years for ODA corruption
A former official behind one of the biggest government corruption cases involving official development assistance Vietnam has ever known has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for gambling millions of dollars and bribing officials and police. The former director of the Ministry of Transport's Project Management Unit 18 (PMU18), Bui Tien Dung, was sentenced Wednesday November 14.
Vietnam's Supreme Court also sentenced Nguyen Van Hong, former manager of Thang Long Real Estate and Commercial Co, to six-years in prison for running the gambling operation.
Former police lieutenant colonel Nguyen Dinh Toan was given two-years for taking bribes from Dung. The court also ordered Dung to pay a fine of 1.168 billion dong (over US$72,700).
The scandal broke in April last year when Bui Tien Dung was arrested for gambling away US$759,800 and offering bribes totalling nearly 1.2 billion dong to try stop official investigations.
Thanh Nien - November 17, 2007.
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