HCM City (VNA) - The High-level People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City on May 12 delivered the appellate verdict in the high-profile corruption case involving the Xuyen Viet Oil Transport, Trading and Tourism Co., Ltd (Xuyen Viet Oil), with the appeals of six out of the seven defendants accepted.

Specifically, the trial panel sentenced the mastermind of the case, Mai Thi Hong Hanh, ex-Director and Chairwoman of the Board of Members of Xuyen Viet Oil, to 11 years in prison for the crime of “giving bribes” and 17 years for “violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing loss and wastefulness.” The combined sentence is 28 years in prison, 2 years less than the first-instance verdict.

For Le Duc Tho, ex-Secretary of the Party Committee of Ben Tre province, the court sentenced him to 14 years in prison for “receiving bribes” and 7 years for “abusing position and power to influence others for personal gain.” The combined sentence is 21 years in prison, a reduction of 7 years.

Reductions of 1-2 years in prison were also applied for four other defendants.

As for defendant Nguyen Loc An, ex-Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the sentence of 4 years in prison for the crime of "receiving bribes" was upheld.

The trial panel stated that, at the appellate hearing, the defendants showed a willingness to rectify the consequences of the case by voluntarily paying back money and using assets that were under seizure or freezing to remedy the situation. Therefore, there was sufficient grounds to accept the appeals for reduced sentences for the defendants.

For An, who paid an additional 100 million VND to rectify the situation, the court noted that he played an active role in issuing a business license for Xuyen Viet Oil, leading to the particularly serious consequences of the case. The defendant is also currently being tried by the People's Court of Hanoi in another case involving bribery charges. The trial panel concluded that the 4-year prison sentence imposed by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court was appropriate, and thus, An’s appeal for a reduced sentence was rejected.

According to the indictment, during her tenure managing fuel business operations at Xuyen Viet Oil, Hanh violated regulations regarding the price stabilisation fund and environmental protection tax payments, causing losses of 1.463 trillion VND (56 million USD) to the state. This included 219 billion VND from the fuel price stabilisation fund and 1.244 trillion VND in environmental taxes.

Hanh allegedly failed to instruct staff to allocate the required amounts to the price stabilisation fund, instead directing subordinates to transfer the money to her personal accounts. She then used these funds for personal use and bribery. Regarding environmental tax obligations, she intentionally used collected taxes for personal purposes instead of transferring them to the state budget.

To secure import-export licences for Xuyen Viet Oil from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2016 and 2021, seek authorities' ignorance of the company's wrongdoings related to the price stabilisation fund, obtain preferential contracts, persuade the HCM City Department of Taxation to delay the issuance of tax arrears collection decisions, and gain approval of favourable credit terms for the firm, Hanh gave bribes totalling over 31.5 billion VND to eight former officials for 22 times between 2016 and 2022.

The indictment also stated that Le Duc Tho, while serving as Chairman of VietinBank (2018–2021) and later as Secretary of the Party Committee of Ben Tre province, abused his positions to secure favourable credit terms for Xuyen Viet Oil. In return, Tho allegedly received 600,000 USD and other assets worth over 22 billion VND from Hanh. Though not directly involved in credit decisions, Tho exerted pressure on subordinates to facilitate improper lending.

From January 2020, Xuyen Viet Oil moved its tax obligations from the taxation sub-department of District 3 to fall under the jurisdiction of the HCM City Taxation Department, led by Le Duy Minh. Seeking to delay tax payments and retain working capital, Hanh reportedly bribed Minh five times with a total of 190,000 USD and 500 million VND to postpone coercive measures and prevent public disclosure of the company's tax debts.

𝕴 Additionally, Hanh was accused of bribing many other officials during the licensing and operations of Xuyen Viet Oil’s fuel import-export business, including ex-Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai. Despite knowing the company failed to meet licensing criteria, several former ministry officials allegedly accepted bribes to issue business permits./.