Defendants at the court. Sentences for former director of the Hanoi CDC Nguyen Nhat Cam and his accomplices have been upheld – PHOTO: LDO

HCMC – The Hanoi People’s Court has rejected all appeals and upheld jail sentences for former director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) Nguyen Nhat Cam and his accomplices for their price gouging on real-time PCR detection systems used for Covid-19 testing.

Thus, Cam was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for violating bidding regulations. Nguyen Vu Ha Thanh, head of the Hanoi CDC’s financial and accounting department; and Dao The Vinh, director of Vietnam Trading and Material Science Company, received jail terms of 6.5 years each, the local media reported.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, former head of the Hanoi CDC’s administrative organization department; and Nguyen Tran Duy, general director of Nhan Thanh Property Valuation and Auction JSC, were handed down prison terms of six years each.

Moreover, Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, former head of the planning and operation department at the Hanoi CDC, must stay behind bars for five years.

According to the court, these defendants’ violations were serious, damaging the prestige of the State management agencies. While the entire country is striving to curb the pandemic, the defendants failed to fulfill their assigned tasks and violated the regulations.

Cam was determined as the mastermind of the case.