Scandals Rumble On

While the Vietnam Registry implodes

Good morning! Welcome to the latest subscriber-only edition of the Vietnam Weekly. This is the continuation of a series I began last year focused on the anti-corruption campaign, which remains one of the country’s most important stories. You can upgrade to a paid subscription for US$5/month or US$50/year below.

On Friday, I’ll cover the fallout of President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc’s resignation as we wait for his replacement to be named. There’s been a lot of recent coverage on difficulties facing the property market, partly due to fallout from the graft campaign, but we’ll get to that another day.

On to the news.

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Viet A & Repatriation

The Viet A and repatriation flight scandals continue to simmer, with numerous people detained in relation to these schemes over the past month.

In early January, two women were detained under investigation in the Viet A case: one was the director of a holding company, and the other worked at the Vietnam Education Publishing House. (What does someone at a publisher have to do with Covid-19 test kits? No clue.)

Over 100 people are now under investigation as part of this scandal, ranging from the former Minister of Health down to relative nobodies. Roughly US$73 million has been confiscated, frozen, or returned by defendants.