Hanoi
A court in Vietnam on Saturday sentenced a former information minister to life in prison after finding him guilty of taking $3 million in bribes in connection with a controversial deal at state telecoms firm MobiFone. Nguyen Bac Son received the money to facilitate a deal in which MobiFone overpaid for a 95 percent stake in a loss-making pay television provider, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. The court also sentenced another former information minister, Truong Minh Tuan, to 14 years in prison, accused of economic mismanagement and taking bribes in the same case, according to the statement. MobiFone, one of Vietnam’s three largest mobile carriers by subscription, bought the stake in Audio Visual Global JSC for nearly 8.9 trillion dongs ($383.7 million) in late 2015.— Reuters
