The Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Security Investigations (A09) has completed its investigation and recommended the prosecution of Hoang Quoc Hung, former Director of the National Judicial Record Center under the Ministry of Justice, for the crime of “taking bribes.”

Also facing prosecution for the same charge are Luong Nhan Hoa (former Deputy Director), Nguyen Dinh Canh (former Deputy Head of General Administration), and Pham Quang Hau (a collaborator at Vicco Law Co., Ltd). Seventeen others have been proposed for prosecution on charges of “abuse of power or position in the performance of official duties” and “giving bribes.”

According to the investigation, from February 2015 to July 2023, Hoang Quoc Hung was appointed Director of the National Judicial Record Center. In this role, he oversaw all operations, including direct supervision of the judicial record certificate issuance process.

In 2019, capitalizing on the rising demand from both Vietnamese citizens and foreigners for judicial record certificates, Hung conspired with Pham Quang Hau, Luong Nhan Hoa, and Nguyen Dinh Canh to negotiate and accept bribes from 14 other individuals, as well as from several others, to unlawfully issue these certificates.

Investigators detailed the methods used: To legitimize the authority and rationale for the issuance of judicial record certificates at the national center, Hung instructed his accomplices to request that bribe-givers leave blank the fields regarding permanent address, temporary residence, and residency history on the application form. They were also told to use passports instead of national ID cards or citizen IDs, since passports do not display residency information.

Furthermore, Hung ordered relevant departments within the center to receive, verify, and issue certificates for applications missing key residency details, which directly violated issuance protocols.

Hung also prohibited center staff from directly engaging in the certificate issuance service but allowed Hau to act as an intermediary, collecting applications from those seeking certificates.

Consequently, Hoa and Canh coordinated with Hau, who then delivered bribes to Hung in exchange for processing applications on behalf of individuals and companies.

Investigators noted that Hau was tasked with receiving applications and negotiating fees with clients. He then gave Hung 700,000 VND (approximately $28) per certificate. Typically, Hau, Hoa, and Canh charged intermediaries 750,000 to 850,000 VND (about $30 to $34) per application.

The investigation concluded that between January 2019 and July 2023, Hung, with help from the other defendants, accepted bribes totaling more than 43 billion VND (over $1.7 million) to unlawfully issue over 55,000 judicial record certificates.

The Ministry of Public Security classified this as a particularly serious and complex corruption case within the public service sector, seriously undermining the integrity of state administration and drawing widespread public concern.

T. Nhung