An official from the Vietnamese Ministry of Health responsible for financial management, Nguyen Hoang, was sentenced to death for corruption. Investigations revealed that Nguyen Hoang was involved in forging 409 documents to withdraw 2.46 trillion Vietnamese dong from public funds, over half of which he used for personal purposes, including gambling and buying lottery tickets.
Media reports state that 53-year-old Nguyen Hoang, who had served as the chief accountant and head of financial accounting at the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology under the Ministry of Health, was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Hanoi for embezzling assets.
The investigation pointed out that from March 2009 to February 2023, the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology had opened six accounts at a bank, during which Nguyen Hoang forged 409 documents and withdrew more than 2.46 trillion Vietnamese dong, redepositing 940 billion to cover his tracks, with the remaining 1.52 trillion Vietnamese dong used for personal purposes.
Nguyen Hoang admitted to all charges and claimed that the embezzled public funds were used only for personal consumption and gambling, and were not shared with anyone. According to the indictment, Nguyen Hoang confessed to having repeatedly used the embezzled funds to treat colleagues to lottery tickets and delivered cash in secret at the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
The investigative authorities have seized properties registered under Nguyen Hoang, including a car, a plot of land over 426 square meters in the West Lake district of Hanoi, a plot of land over 1500 square meters in Bac Ninh province, and a plot of land over 450 square meters in Cao Bang province.
