Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security is warning individuals not to take advantage of the way it handles cases by spreading fake economic and financial news.
Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. To An Xo, told the Vietnam News Agency on Monday that in the past ‘bad elements’ had taken advantage of his agency to generate fake news and spread lies about the companies involved.
One example of fake news was a story that the ministry was planning to investigate and prosecute cases involving some of Vietnam’ largest corporations and economic enterprises, which turned out to be completely untrue.
In the past, the Security Investigation Agency, which works under the Ministry of Public Security, has examined numerous cases and arrested company leaders.
The cases include a U.S. $172 million scandal during which the price of COVID-19 test kits was inflated by the Viet A Joint Stock Company.
In June police arrested three officials for taking kickbacks for the overpriced COVID kits: former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long; former Hanoi Mayor Chu Ngoc Anh and former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac were expelled from the Communist Party and removed from their other positions.
The Security Investigation Agency has also looked into allegations of corruption at the FLC Group Joint Stock Company; the Tan Hoang Minh Group Joint Stock Company; and the An Dong Investment Group Joint Stock Company.
FLC group chairman Trinh Van Quyet, was charged with stock market manipulation, after failing to tell authorities he planned to sell 74.8 million shares in January and offloaded his holdings before releasing the paperwork.
The chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Ming was arrested for allegedly "fraudulently appropriating assets."
The agency also investigated Do Anh Dung, chairman of the board of Tan Hoang Minh Group and arrested Truong My Lan - Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group both on fraud charges.