HCMC – Nguyen Nhan Chien, former secretary of Bac Ninh Province’s Party Committee, has been taken into police custody on alleged charges of accepting bribes in connection with the Advanced International JSC’s (AIC) construction bidding scandal.
According to Lieutenant General To An Xo, spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the Criminal Investigation Police Department (C03) detained Chien, 64, today, January 24.
C03 is expanding an investigation of the Health Construction Project Management Board under Bac Ninh’s Department of Health, AIC company, and related units.
The specific violations by Chien have yet to be announced.
Five days ago, a series of Chien’s subordinates were detained for abusing their powers while on official duties, including Nguyen Tu Quynh, former chairman of the northern province of Bac Ninh, Nguyen Hanh Chung, former director of the Bac Ninh Department of Health and current vice chairman of the Bac Ninh People’s Council, and Nguyen Tien Nhuong, former vice chairman of Bac Ninh Provincial People’s Committee.
In particular, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, former chairwoman of AIC, has been charged with bribery in a fifth case.
During his term of office, Chien was involved in a scandal in which he appointed a lot of his relatives to leadership positions in the localities under his management.
Before this detention, C03 had detained Tran Van Tuynh, former director of the management board of a healthcare development project in Bac Ninh Province, Nguyen Dang An and Nguyen Kim Huan, who were head and vice head of the project’s General Planning Department for violating bidding regulations that led to serious consequences at the management board of the healthcare construction project in Bac Ninh, involving AIC and other entities.
In recent developments, charges have been filed against AIC’s leaders and officers in connection to the Vietnam Cybersecurity Emergency Response Teams (VNCERT).
In 2022, investigations were conducted into violations at the General Hospital of Dong Nai Province, Quang Ninh Province’s Department of Health, and HCMC Biotechnology Center, all linked to AIC.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan has been accused of wrongdoing in five separate cases. However, her whereabouts remains unknown, hence an international arrest warrant.
