The bidding packages that Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan won across Vietnam are only the surface of AIC Company. More specifically, foreign press mentioned her role in brokering arms sales between Israel and Vietnam. In Vietnam’s Defense Ministry today there are two factions, one faction is loyal to the Russian weapons supplier, the other faction wants to buy Western weapons.
In 2015, then-US President Barack Obama signed an order to lift the embargo on lethal weapons against Vietnam. That is, the US has opened the way for the Communist Party of Vietnam to access advanced US weapons. After that, Vietnam had contact with the US to raise the issue of buying weapons.
However, the contract broke down when the Vietnamese side asked the US side to raise the contract price so Vietnamese officials can get kickback up to 25% of the contract value. For this reason, the US side does not do business with the Communist Party of Vietnam on arms trading.
Doing business directly with the US is not possible, but you can do business with US allies, like Israel. Because Israeli weapons partly transfer technology from the US, and it is also a more forgiving weapons supplier than the US. The time when Vietnam’s Defense Ministry had a policy of connecting with Israel was when Ngo Xuan Lich was Minister, and Phan Van Giang was Chief of General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and Deputy Minister.
According to rumors, Nhan was Mr. Phan Van Giang’s “mistress” during the period when the Defense Ministry shifted to buying Israeli weapons. At this time, the Defense Ministry needed a representative business to import weapons.
At that time, the Defense Ministry had two enterprises that were considered to be the leading companies specializing in importing weapons for the military, which were Van Xuan General Import-Export Corporation (VAXUCO) and National Economic Technical Industrial Corporation (GAET). However, these two long-standing businesses are close to interest groups that import weapons from Russia, so if they assign the role of importing Western weapons to this group, it will cause the kickback pie smaller.
Therefore, the group of Ngo Xuan Lich and Phan Van Giang needed a new business, in which they themselves took all the kickbacks.
Having a lover who owns a business specializing in implementing projects funded by state budget, Phan Van Giang proposed to bring Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan’s AIC in, and Ngo Xuan Lich accepted. In this new interest group, in addition to the two heads of the Defense Ministry just mentioned, there is also Major General Luu Sy Quy – Director of the Vietnam People’s Army Finance Department, and an additional figure who approves funding for AIC to buy weapon, was Dinh Tien Dung, Minister of Finance at that time.
The capital flow was opened from Dinh Tien Dung and poured into the hands of Liu Si Quy. Luu Sy Quy’s mission is to prevent two businesses, VAXUCO and GAET, from getting involved and directing capital flow to Nhan’s AIC.
Nhan was trusted by Ngo Xuan Lich and Phan Van Giang and assigned the role of “broker” to import weapons to the Defense Ministry. A separate source said that connecting directly between the Israeli side and the Defense Ministry was simple, but required a broker, because the broker is the place to receive money, raise prices, and then distribute kickbacks. That is also a cost that is considered “legal” for the seller, but if it is inflated and returned directly, without going through a broker, it will be very difficult to explain.
Currently, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is using the excuse of AIC’s violations in bidding packages with provincial governments to arrest Nhan. With Nhan in hand, they will continue to expose her case as a broker for the Defense Ministry, but this case will only be kept confidential, because this is an issue related to many national secrets and cannot be made public.
The Defense Ministry is a place that needs to keep many vital secrets to protect the country. Bringing an outside business in, taking on the role of importing weapons, is the way Ngo Xuan Lich and Phan Van Giang put national defense secrets into the hands of outside businesses.
The crimes of this interest group are very great, so when will General Secretary Trong let these officials be touched? He can do it without having Nhan arrested.
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Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan manipulates Defense Ministry with support of General Ngo Xuan Lich and Dinh Tien Dung
The Defense Ministry is a place that needs to keep many vital secrets to protect the country. Bringing an outside business in, taking on the role of importing weapons, is the way Ngo Xuan Lich and Phan Van Giang put national defense secrets into the hands of outside businesses.
The crimes of this interest group are very great, so when will General Secretary Trong let these officials be touched? He can do it without having Nhan arrested.
#Vietnam #NgoXUanLich #DinhTienDung #Thoibao
