The Supreme People’s Court explains a number of circumstances determining the punishment of corruption crimes in Vietnam

Specifically, according to Article 4 of the Resolution No. 03/2020/NQ-HĐTP, the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam stipulates circumstances as the basis for determination of sentence bracket as following:

(1) “involving deceitful methods” or “employing dangerous methods” provided for in clause 2 of Articles 353, 354, 355, 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code of Vietnam:

- “involving deceitful methods” means the offender uses deceitful trick in a sophisticated way, uses high technology to commit the crime, conceal the crime, blame others or the offender destroys evidence, making it difficult to detect, investigate and deal with the crime.

- “employing dangerous methods” means the offender uses a trick that may endanger the lives and health of others or may cause other serious consequences in order to appropriate property or conceal the crime.

(2) “committing offense more than once" provided for in clause 2 of Articles 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 361, 364, 365 and 366 of the Criminal Code of Vietnam means the offender has committed any of the acts in these Articles at least twice and each act, though all constitutes a crime, has not been criminally prosecuted and the prescriptive period for criminal prosecution has not expired.

E.g. On August 15, 2018, Nguyen Van A embezzled VND 10,000,000. On September 25, 2019, Nguyen Van A embezzled further VND 20,000,000. These offenses have not been criminally prosecuted and the prescriptive period for criminal prosecution has not expired. In this case, A faces a criminal prosecution for embezzlement and also faces the factor of “committing offense more than once” as prescribed in point c clause 2 Article 353 of the Criminal Code of Vietnam.

(3) “The offense has a negative impact on life of officials, public employees and workers of an agency or organization” provided for in point g clause 2 of Article 353 of the Criminal Code of Vietnam means any of the following:

- Causing a loss or decline in regular incomes and legitimate additional incomes of officials, public employees and workers;

- Causing frustrated claims, whistleblowing, disunity, or disbelief within the agency or organization that negatively affects the morale of officials, public employees and workers.

(4) “The offense has a negative impact on social security, order or safety” provided for in clause 3 of Articles 353, 355 of the Criminal Code of Vietnam means any of the following:

- Causing massive lawsuits, protests, disturbances that enable hostile forces to misuse, entice or provoke actions against the government, distort the Party’s guidelines, policies and laws of the state;

- Causing confusion, fear or resentment among the people;

- Causing difficulties in implementing the Party's guidelines, policies and laws of the state.

E.g. Nguyen Van A embezzled a subsidy for the poor in economic development which causes the People’s Committee B difficulty in implementing the hunger eradication and poverty reduction policy in the commune.

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