On 26/12, Sang, 53, former head of the transport, vehicle, and driver management department of Soc Trang Department of Transport (now Can Tho Department of Construction), was sentenced by the People's Court of Can Tho City to five years in prison for bribery, under Article 354 of the Criminal Code. He must return all illicit gains totaling 236.2 million VND.

In connection with the case, Thai Thanh Son, 48, former chairman of the Board of Members and director of Son Phung Co., Ltd., received one year and six months in prison for bribing. He must also return 224 million VND in illicit gains.

The two defendants, Cao Thanh Sang and Thai Thanh Son, at the trial. Photo: Hung Loi

According to the case file, in 10/2010, Son Phung Co., Ltd., directed by Son, was licensed for transport business. By late 2015, due to regulations requiring trucks over 10 tons to have permits and the company's desire to expand, it repeatedly applied to renew its license, add transport types, and obtain permits.

Sang, head of the transport, vehicle, and driver management department, was responsible for receiving applications. However, the company's applications were repeatedly rejected for not meeting conditions: inadequate parking area, drivers lacking labor contracts and social insurance, missing professional training certificates, and unnotarized vehicle rental documents.

To resolve this, Son asked an acquaintance to introduce him to Sang. There, Sang stipulated a payment of 500,000 VND per vehicle for licenses and permits. Son agreed.

Following the agreement, despite incomplete documentation, Son's company still received a "standard compliant" inspection report and a business license. As the number of vehicles increased during operation, Son continued to pay as agreed to obtain monthly permits.

Investigators determined that Son collected 1 million VND per permit from vehicle owners but only gave Sang 500,000 VND. Since the law does not require a fee for issuing permits, the difference Son kept (over 224 million VND) was identified as illicit gain.

Regarding the bribe money, Son claimed to have paid Sang a total of over 2.7 billion VND from 2016 to 2023. However, investigation results only provided sufficient evidence to prove that from 3/3/2022 to 1/2/2023, Son had his wife transfer money 12 times to Sang's account, totaling over 236 million VND. Of this, 224 million VND was for permits for 448 vehicles, and 12 million VND was for professional training fees.

At the trial, the court determined that the defendants' actions were dangerous and undermined the proper functioning of state agencies.

Regarding Sang, despite his achievements and having returned all the bribe money, he did not cooperate during the investigation and only confessed at the second trial. Therefore, the court found no basis for criminal liability exemption but considered mitigating circumstances to impose a sentence below the maximum.

As for Son, the court noted that he also benefited from the case. The bribery continued for many years, but Son did not report it immediately. He only filed a complaint after conflicts arose and cooperation ceased between the two parties.

An Binh