Da Nang CDC chief imprisoned for Covid embezzlement scandal

In addition to Thanh, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, 41, former head of the Da Nang CDC testing laboratory, received a 10-year term, and Le Thi Kim Chi, 37, a testing lab staff member, was sentenced to five years for "embezzlement of property."

The prison terms are being applied from the time the defendants were taken into custody in June 2022.

According to the indictment, Thanh and his accomplices conspired with Ho Chi Minh City-based Viet A Technology Corporation (Viet A) to sell Covid testing supplies that were purchased by Da Nang authorities to serve the public during the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.

In late 2020, the defendants discovered a surplus of medical supplies while using Covid-19 testing products purchased from Viet A.

Thanh directed Nhan and Chi to fake documents in order to not report the surplus of medical supplies in the system. Instead, they resold the surplus of medical supplies back to Viet A Company at a lower price to appropriate the money for personal use.

The investigation agency said from January 30, 2021, to April 6, 2022, the total amount of chemicals, biological products, and medical supplies that Thanh and his accomplices had appropriated included 21,000 automatic extraction kits, 10,000 manual extraction kits, 2,400 PCR test kits and more than 75,000 empty tubes.

The complete value of assets embezzled totaled over VND4.5 billion (US$187,000).