Vietnam Jails Ex-Deputy Labor Minister for Economic Mismanagement
By Reuters 26 September 2019
HANOI—A court in Vietnam on Wednesday sentenced a former deputy labor minister to six years in prison after finding him guilty of economic mismanagement, state media reported.
Le Bach Hong, who had been deputy minister of labor, invalids and social affairs, and a former head of Vietnam Social Security, was also ordered by the People’s Court of Hanoi to pay a cash fine of 150 billion dong (US$6.47 million, 9.9 billion kyats), reported An Ninh Thu Do newspaper, which is run by the Hanoi Police Department.
Reuters was unable to reach Hong’s lawyer for comments.
The trial comes amid a corruption crackdown in the Southeast Asian country that has seen several senior government officials and executives of state-owned enterprises arrested and jailed.
The report said Hong and others illegally lent state money to a local financial company that went bankrupt in 2018, causing losses of nearly 1.7 trillion dong to the state budget.
The court also sentenced five other former officials of Vietnam Social Security to between two and 14 years in prison for the same charges, according to the report.
