Cho Ray doctor gets 16 years in drug fraud

A former doctor from the prestigious Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has finally been sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for faking prescriptions and stealing over billions of dongs worth of prescribed drugs in 2009.

The Appeal Court of the Supreme People’s Court in HCMC Friday gave the sentence to Luu To Lan, who was charged with “abusing power and positions to appropriate assets”.

At the first instance court last April, Lan was sentenced to 15 years in jail, but the Supreme People's Procuracy later appealed the verdict, demanding a heavier penalty for her.

The appeal court kept the 6-year jail sentence unchanged against Nguyen Thi Thu Ba, 54, a medical staff from Tan Binh Hospital.

Meanwhile, Huynh Quoc Thai, 50, a staff of Cho Ray’s pharmaceutical department, had his sentence reduced from 6 years to 5 years in prison.

Pham Thi Duyen, from HCMC’s District 7 Hospital, also saw her imprisonment commuted to 2 years from 3 years in jail.

Especially, the court converted the sentence of 3 years in prison into a probation sentence for Tran Dinh Tuy, 41, a former doctor at from HCMC’s District 7 Hospital.

According to the indictment from the Supreme People’s Procuracy, between January and April 2009, Lan, a former doctor of Cho Ray Hospital’s Endocrinology Department, faked 1,168 prescriptions worth about VND4.1 billion (US$196,000) for health insurance holders, who in fact did not come to the hospital for any examination.

Most of those prescriptions were very expensive, from VND2.5-5 million ($119.5-239) each.

Lan had many people borrow heath insurance cards from cardholders in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces, after which she had doctors issue false hospital transfer forms for those cardholders to Cho Ray Hospital for examination.

For each ‘medical record’, including a health insurance card and a hospital transfer form, Lan paid VND300,000-1.4 million to the providers.

Lan then colluded with some doctors, nurses and other employees of Cho Ray Hospital to neglect regulations related to medical examination and treatment so that she could write false prescriptions to “virtual patients” to appropriate the drugs.

For each step related to issuing the false prescriptions, Lan paid VND150,000 – 200,000 to the people who helped her.

Lan and her accomplices sold the drugs to pharmacies for VND2.6 billion ($124,000), just two-third of the market value, and then shared the money, of which Lan got VND1.1 billion ($52,600).

$94,000 baby kidnappers indicted

The investigation police agency from the Ministry of Public Security Friday pressed charges against two kidnappers of a three-month-old baby for a ransom of 50 taels of gold in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vo Thi Thanh Thuy, 29, from Bac Lieu Province, and her lover Nguyen Xuan Tam, 52, from HCMC’s District 4, were seized on September 13 while they were receiving 50 taels (1.8 kg) of gold worth US$94,000 from Ly Dieu Tran Chau, 29, the mother of the baby, Quach Minh Hai.

Thuy pleaded guilty to kidnapping and told the police that she had worked as a domestic help for Chau’s family for a month after being recommended by an employment center.
The family lives on Hoang Dieu Street, Ward 6, District 4.

On the morning of September 10, Chau received a text message from an unknown phone number asking for a ransom of 50 taels of gold in return for the baby.

The woman then secretly informed the police who later got a tip-off from local residents about where the baby was being kept.

A police team later found the baby in a private kindergarten on Pham Van Chieu Street, Go Vap District. The kindergarten manager said a woman had brought the baby in on September 10 and left the baby there for care for three days.

After being arrested, Thuy and Tam drank water mixed with pesticide that they had brought with them in an attempt to commit suicide.
The two were taken to hospital and have recovered.

Hanoi traffic cops allowed to don sunglasses

Hanoi’s Road & Railway Traffic Police Bureau has allowed local traffic policemen to wear sunglasses and face-mask while on duty on sunny and dusty days to avoid respiratory diseases.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Duy Ngoc, deputy director of the bureau, has confirmed the information with Tuoi Tre.

However, they are to remove their sunglasses and facemask when addressing the people and traffic violators, to show due respect to them and maintain their proper manners, Ngoc added.

Also they are not allowed to keep their hands in their trousers’ or coats’ pockets while monitoring the traffic or on duty in public places.

Last May, the Ministry of Public Security issued a new instruction banning the police in the country from wearing sunglasses and smoking while on duty in an attempt to establish “appropriate behaviors” in the police force.

Da Nang man sets fire to own house

Ho Hai in Thanh Khe district, the central province of Da Nang allegedly set his own house on fire at 8am Friday and then went to drink coffee as if nothing had happened.

Seeing smoke coming from Hai’s house, neighbors in Dinh Tien Hoang Street’s alley 72 called emergency number and two fire trucks arrived soon after.

An hour later, local residents and 20 firefighters managed to control the blaze.

Many items in the house were reported to have been burned.

According to some witnesses, Ho Hai was spotted setting fire to his own house where he lives alone.

Authorities are inspecting the case.

Hundreds evacuated after landslide hits Ngu Hanh Son

28 local families living near Moc Son (Wood mountain), one of the five marble and limestone hills in the tourist area Ngu Hanh Son, south of Da Nang central city, have been evacuated after a menacing landslide hit the mountain Friday morning.

The landslide loosened a large boulder weighing around 100 tons and sent it crashing down, crushing two houses in Hoa Hai ward in Ngu Hanh Son district. Luckily, there were no casualties.

The collapse caused considerable worry to local residents and filled them with fear of similar incidents. However, local authorities have orderd locals to move away from the dangerous zone.

Earlier, at 11:45am on September 8, a 50-ton piece of rock fell on the same area following a landslide triggered by heavy rain. Fortunately, eight people in the two houses nearby escaped unscathed.

After the landslide, local authorities called a meeting to discuss measures to evacuate 28 families living around the Moc Son mountain to ensure their safety.

They will receive compensation for their evacuation, said Nguyen Dinh Thu – deputy chairman of Ngu Hanh Son Ward’s People Committee.

Corrupt police officers must be dismissed: ministry

The Ministry of Public Security has requested the heads of local police departments to dismiss bribe-taking traffic police officers and punish their direct superiors, the ministry’s Press Information Center said.

In a dispatch to the police departments of provinces and cities where traffic police officers were caught taking bribes from traffic violators, the ministry asked the department leaders to personally supervise investigations into the corruption and impose strict punishments against those found guilty.

Traffic police officers found guilty of taking bribes must be dismissed and those who violate the moral codes of the police force must be transferred to other departments, the ministry required.

The heads of units where wrongdoings are committed must also be penalized for their poor supervision over their staff’s operation, the ministry said.

To date, after Tuoi Tre’s articles about traffic corruption in the central provinces, a number of police departments related have suspended at least 26 traffic policemen pending investigation into their allegedly taking bribes from drivers who committed traffic violations such as overloading, speeding, and driving on the wrong lanes, among many others.

On the same day, Major General Nguyen The Bau, Chief Inspector of the ministry, also required chief inspectors of all local police department in provinces and cities to step up inspections of corruption cases in the traffic police force.

The official also instructed them to publicize the police hot lines to encourage the public to call in with information and feedback about the misconduct of the traffic police.

He said the ministry’s inspectorate would conduct investigations without notice in some provinces or cities to check the activities and responsibility of local police departments in fighting corruption in the traffic police force.

Robber at jury’s house sentenced to 20 years

Nguyen Huynh Chau Duc Tai (19) in Vinh Long city has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing properties and injuring people at the court Friday.

On April 24, Tai broke in the house of Ha Thanh Hong, a jury at Vinh Long People’s Committee by a door on second floor.

Couldn’t find anything to steal there, Tai went downstairs and intended to wait until everyone got out of the house.

However, he overslept.

In the morning, Le Thi Ua, Hong’s mother-in-law discovered Tai sleeping in the house when she was preparing to leave for morning exercises.

Tai immediately used a knife and stabbed her several times.

Hong and his wife, Dang Thi Thuy Giang heard Ua’s cry for help and ran outside but were also stabbed by Tai.

He stole VND1.8 million (US$90), $5 in cash, an ATM card worth VND40 million (US$2000) and an 18 carat gold ring.

Tai even asked Hong to give him his motorbike to escape.

However, the neighbors heard screams from Hong’s house and had blocked from outside.

Tai could not get out of the house and later was seized by Vinh Long province police.

At the court, Tai admitted that he committed robbery since he needed some money to go to vocational school. His family is poor and his mother cannot not afford to pay his tuition fees.

Tai then thought of robbing Hong’s house, which is nearby.

At the court, Tai admitted his reckless acts and insisted that he only aimed to get the money, not to kill people.

However, the jury at the Vinh Long People’s Committee said Tai has got involved in a very serious case and condemn him to the highest sentence.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre