Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, aged 57, was sentenced to an additional 10 years in prison by the People's Court of Ca Mau on August 12, following a two-day trial. Nhan, who is the chairwoman and general director of the International Progress Joint Stock Company (AIC), was convicted for her involvement in directing fraudulent bidding practices that inflated equipment prices, resulting in a loss of over 4.4 billion VND for the Bac Lieu province.

The court also sentenced Pham Quoc Nam, the former director of the Bac Lieu Department of Natural Resources and Environment, to four years in prison for his role in the same case. Other individuals involved, including Trần Mạnh Hà, former deputy general director of AIC, and several others, received sentences ranging from three to seven years.

This case is the seventh in which Nhan has been identified as the mastermind behind fraudulent activities. Over the past few years, various courts have consistently identified her as the key figure orchestrating bidding fraud and inflating equipment prices, leading to severe damage to the state budget. Collectively, Nhan now faces a total prison sentence of 30 years, the maximum term for a fixed-term sentence.

The charges stem from a project initiated in 2017 by the Bac Lieu Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which was tasked with constructing three automatic surface water monitoring stations with a total investment of over 50.7 billion VND. AIC won the bidding for one package of this project at a price of 39 billion VND, which included 70 automatic monitoring devices and a vehicle for field sampling.

According to the indictment, Nhan was the mastermind behind the establishment of a group of companies designed to facilitate AIC's success in the bidding process. During the investment preparation phase, AIC representatives allegedly approached the project owner, participated in site surveys, and provided technical specifications and pricing information to influence the bidding documents. AIC submitted three price quotes, including one from itself and two from affiliated companies, which were used to prepare the feasibility study and bidding documents. These quotes were found to have inflated equipment prices.

To meet financial capability requirements, Nhan was accused of directing the manipulation of financial reports for 2013 and 2014 and fabricating an audit report for 2014 to demonstrate AIC's eligibility to bid.

Pham Quoc Nam, as the project owner, was accused of facilitating AIC's success by appointing consulting firms to prepare and evaluate bidding documents while restricting participation from other potential bidders. The bidding documents required contractors to provide a copy of the manufacturer's sales license or partnership certification, which was deemed unnecessary for the project, thus limiting competition.

The Southeast Asia Valuation Company was accused of relying solely on the inflated quotes provided by AIC without following proper procedures, leading to the issuance of a valuation certificate that legitimized the inflated prices. The valuation determined the equipment's worth at over 35 billion VND as of December 2019, confirming a loss of 4.4 billion VND to the state.

Both Nhan and Hà are currently fugitives and are wanted internationally. During the investigation, Bùi Thị Kim Em, a former chief accountant at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, voluntarily returned 205 million VND.