Vietnamese corruption trial opens

Six Vietnamese Government officials, a banker and a business executive were brought to trial today for alleged involvement in a corruption case that touched off widespread public anger, a Hanoi court official said.

According to investigators, the Government officials collaborated in the awarding of a contract to a small private company, Van Thien, to build an entertainment complex despite its lack of construction experience.

Van Thien had only 662,000 dong (£30) in capitalisation, but Dong Xuan Lan, director of the North Asia commercial bank, falsified documents raising its capital to 4.2 billion dong (£191,000) to make it eligible to bid for the contract, the army newspaper People’s Army reported.