A former officer at the Vietnamese Consulate General in Japan has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes related to the organization of repatriation flights during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Lieutenant General To An Xo, chief of office and spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, on Tuesday announced the detention of 58-year-old Nguyen Hong Ha, a former officer of the Vietnamese Consulate General in Japan’s Osaka, for his alleged bribe taking.

Along with Ha, police also arrested Nguyen Le Ngoc Anh, 34, an ex-official of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia for her alleged abuse of positions and powers while on duty, and Hoang Anh Kiem, 44, a man working as a freelancer, who was accused of giving bribes, Xo said. 

This is the latest development in the ministry’s investigation into the case of ‘offering and accepting bribes and fraudulently appropriating property’ that occurred at the Consular Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Most recently, police officers captured Nguyen Quang Linh, an assistant to Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, for allegedly taking bribes.

The ministry started its probe into this case at the end of January, investigating 48-year-old Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, director of the foreign ministry’s Consular Department and her three subordinates, on suspicion of accepting bribes related to the organization of repatriation flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far, 22 people have been prosecuted and detained, including officials and ex-officials from the foreign affairs, health, transport, and public security ministries. 

The highest-ranking official among the detainees is To Anh Dung, 58, deputy foreign minister, who was accused of taking bribes.

Initial investigation results have proved that the defendants had received hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars and tens of billions of dong (VND1 billion equals $41,900), the public security ministry said at a press conference at the end of June.

During the pandemic that has hit the country since early 2020, agencies concerned organized nearly 2,000 flights to bring home hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese citizens from abroad when air travels were still restricted, and each of the flights brought in a net profit of billions of dong, Lieutenant General Xo said.  

“Any negative acts of profiteering and changing the humanitarian nature of the repatriation flights should be condemned and strictly punished by law,” spokesperson of the foreign ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press briefing early this year.

Investigators are expanding their probe into this scandal.

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