One more corporate executive arrested in pandemic repatriation flight scam

Tran Tien, director of Phi Truong Trading and Tourism Company Limited, was detained on Tuesday on charges of giving bribes related to flights that brought Vietnamese home from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

After more than a year of investigation, 51 people have been arrested in the scandal, including Tien, 42. Among those investigated for taking bribes were Nguyen Quang Linh, assistant to former Acting Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh; To Anh Dung, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Vu Hong Nam, former ambassador of Vietnam to Japan; Tran Viet Thai, former ambassador of Vietnam to Malaysia; Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, former head of the foreign ministry's Department of Consular Affairs; and many other ambassadors and diplomats working in Japan, Malaysia, Russia and Angola.

Chu Xuan Dung, vice chairman of Hanoi, and Tran Van Tan, vice chairman of Quang Nam province are also being investigated for taking bribes.

Investigators said that taking advantage of the flights to "rescue" Vietnamese citizens from abroad to return home due to the pandemic, many ministerial officials colluded with businesses to reap hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars illicitly.

After the pandemic broke out, Vietnam organized about 2,000 repatriation flights to bring home citizens from overseas, according to a spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security.

When the flights were deployed, many people complained they had to buy very expensive tickets and go through cumbersome procedures.

The case of giving, receiving and brokering bribes, and fraudulently appropriating property when organizing "rescue: flights were identified to occur at the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Health, and Transport, Government Office, Hanoi People's Committee, and related units.