According to the 7pm news bulletin on March 30 by Vietnam Television, Hoang Van Thuc has been charged alongside 10 other suspects in connection with violations related to environmental monitoring.

The case is being led by the Environmental Crime Prevention Police Department (C05) in coordination with the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency, which is carrying out procedural measures as part of the investigation.

Initial findings indicate that Hoang Van Thuc allegedly received billions of dong from involved parties.

Earlier, C05 and the Investigation Police Agency under the Ministry of Public Security had prosecuted 74 suspects linked to violations in environmental monitoring across multiple provinces and cities. These suspects are associated with 59 enterprises discharging waste and installing monitoring equipment nationwide, including officials and leaders within state agencies responsible for environmental management.

Investigators determined that monitoring devices installed at wastewater discharge points and emission sources had been deliberately interfered with and manipulated in a sophisticated manner before transmitting data to local Departments of Agriculture and Environment.

Despite being sealed and monitored by cameras, the systems were remotely adjusted via software to reduce output indicators, conceal actual discharge levels and ensure that reported data remained within permissible limits.

Preliminary investigation results show that nearly 160 environmental monitoring stations had their data altered and falsified.

Dinh Hieu