VietNam Society

Monday, October 18, 2010

US bribery convictions raise questions at home

Media reports at home and abroad have forced Vietnamese officials to look into last week’s conviction of three Vietnamese-Americans inside the US.

Last Saturday, local media outlets quoted several sources as saying that three former employees and a partner of the Philadelphia-based exporter, Nexus Technologies Inc., had pled guilty, on September 15, to bribing Vietnamese officials in exchange for lucrative government contracts.

The trio admitted that from 1999 to 2008 they agreed to pay, and knowingly paid, bribes in excess of US$250,000 to Vietnamese government officials, according to the US Department of Justice which first charged the brother and his two sisters with money laundering and bribery in October of last year.

The department’s most recent indictment alleged that three of the company’s customers – the state-owned Vietsovpetro Joint Venture, Petro Vietnam Gas Company (PV Gas), and the Southern Flight Management Center (SFMC) - were also involved in the case.

However, Vu Tien Chien, the office manager at the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention, said that, so far, all of the information they have received was provided by the press. Agencies concerned need to evaluate the claims and hand the matter over to investigators – if the case warrants further probes, Chien added.

“Any corruption case related to Vietnam is considered carefully and strictly by the country’s anticorruption agencies,” Chien said.

Hoang Nghia Mai, deputy chief of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the nation’s highest prosecutorial body, also told the Tuoi Tre newspaper that foreign agencies have yet to forward any related information to his office.

In the meantime, Dinh La Thang, chairman of the Board at PetroVietnam, said an internal investigation following the allegations found their member companies (PV Gas and Vietsovpetro) aren’t related to Nexus’ bribery case.

The news source also quoted a leader at the Ministry of Transport’s inspectorate as saying that in its report to leadership, the SFMC denied all allegations. They have never signed a contract agreeing to buy equipment from Nexus, they said.

Last week a Philadelphia court sentenced Nexus’ President and owner Nam Nguyen, 54, of Houston and Vietnam, to 16 months in prison, Bloomberg reported.

The sentencing came as an apparent plea deal – according to a US Department of Justice press release issued in March, 2010, the trio could have been fined up to $27 million and sentenced to between 30 and 35 years in prison.

One of his siblings, Kim Nguyen, 41, was sentenced to two years of probation and another, An Nguyen, 34, received a nine-month sentence. Former Nexus partner Joseph Lucas was given two years of probation.

They all pled guilty of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Prosecutors said that Nexus identified US vendors for contracts opened for bids by the Vietnamese government and other companies in Vietnam, according to Bloomberg. The products sought included helicopter parts, chemical detectors, bomb-containment gear, air tracking systems and other materials.

In March of this year, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office alleged the following in a government release:

“According to court documents, Nam Nguyen negotiated the contracts and bribes with the Vietnamese government agencies and employees. Kim Nguyen, vice president of Nexus, oversaw the US operations and handled company finances. An Nguyen identified US vendors.”

Acknowledging that, as a company, it operated primarily through criminal means, Nexus also agreed to cease operations, the US Department of Justice reported.

Nine-month-old baby abused by mother

Police in the southern province of Dong Thap are investigating a case where a mother allegedly abused her nine-month-old daughter.

Initial reports show that Nguyen Thi Xuan Lan’s lover, 34-year-old Le Thanh Tam, and her parents, Tran Thi Hanh and Nguyen Van Kiet, also beat nine-month-old Nguyen Thi Nhu Y.

Y was brought to a local hospital with multiple injuries last Thursday (September 16) by health officials and police from Long Hau Commune in Lai Vung District, following a tip-off from locals.

A photo taken of Nguyen Thi Nhu Y at the hospital where she is still receiving treatment. Doctors say some of the wounds were caused by pressing hot objects to the skin.

The suspects said they beat the girl because she was a source of bad luck for the family. They believed that hitting her would drive any misfortune away, according to Tran Van Hung, chairman of the People’s Committee in Long Hau Commune.

The police have placed Tam in custody, Nguyen Hong Phi, a representative for Lai Vung District police said.

Tam was also accused of filming the abuse on his mobile phone which has been confiscated by police, Le Xuan Lang, the Lai Vung police chief said.

“It’s heart-wrenching to see images of the child being beaten and tortured in such a cruel manner,” Lang said.

Lang said police did not arrest Lan, 33, while she was taking care of her baby who is still receiving treatment at Dong Thap General Hospital. Vietnamese law states that any child under 36 months cannot be separated from its mother.

On Wednesday, however, it was found that Lan and her parents were still mistreating the baby, said Hung. Local authorities handed Y over to a neighbor and Lan was arrested the same day.

The parents are under investigation.

In the meantime, Dr. Nguyen Van Ve, chief of Trauma and Orthopedic Department, said while Y’s injuries are not life-threatening, they will require lengthy treatment.

The girl has bruises all over her body as well as three deep wounds to her left thigh and in the soles of her feet.

“We have concluded that the injuries must have been caused by pressing hot objects to the skin, causing it to burn and blister. The wounds are badly infected and so are difficult to treat,” he said.

In an interview with Thanh Nien, Hung said Lan had been married to two Taiwanese men and returned home pregnant from Taiwan early this year.

Three months after she gave birth to Y, she started a relationship with Tam, a local man in the neighborhood, according to Hung.

Kiet, meanwhile, said his daughter’s Taiwanese husband used to visit Lan six months ago before his family asked him to finish with her.

“The baby often cried and her mother would beat her with a wooden stick,” Kiet said.

Hung said Lan’s neighbors heard Y crying and the mother screaming and cursing since early this month. However, they didn’t know about the abuse, as the girl was kept inside the house at all times.

The neighbors alerted local authorities when they saw bruises on the girl’s body by chance.

This is the first case in the commune where a mother has abused her daughter in such a way, the chairman stressed.

The incident has provoked public outrage.

Health workers at Dong Thap General Hospital reported that hundreds of people, including other patients’ family members, flocked to Y’s room to confront Lan. As a result, mother and daughter were sent to a restricted area.

In May, the Vietnamese public was shocked and angered by a case of child torture in the southern province of Ca Mau where 14-year-old Nguyen Hoang Anh was repeatedly abused by his employers over the course of a year.

The married couple was later sentenced to 23 years in prison each for “deliberately injuring” and “torturing” Anh.