People have been prosecuted for allegedly forging and trading in Covid-19 test certificates - PHOTO: BAC NINH PEOPLE’S PROCURACY

HCMC – The Bac Ninh People’s Procuracy today, August 19, approved the provincial Police Department’s proposal to file charges against 12 people for allegedly forging Covid-19 test certificates and providing them to interprovincial drivers and workers at industrial parks.

The provincial police and procuracy had earlier launched an investigation into the falsification of documents relating to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

They later arrested Tran Tan Duong, 34, a resident of Dong Thap and director of the Thien Nhan Advertisement Printing Design Co., Ltd., headquartered in Bac Ninh.

Duong said he knew that workers and drivers needed Covid-19 test certificates to pass through checkpoints, so he forged the certificate samples of the Hoan My International Hospital and sold them to those in need to earn profits.

He collected real Covid-19 test certificates, scanned and saved them. He later modified their template on his computer and filled in the personal information of his customers, before printing them out and faking the signatures of the Hoan My International Hospital’s employees and leaders.

Duong sold some 150 fake Covid-19 test certificates. Quick test certificates were priced at VND150,000 each, while PCR test certificates cost VND250,000 each.

Two groups of people regularly bought the certificates from Duong, including a group of four people, who bought fake certificates and provided them to long-haul drivers of the HG Trading and Transport Services Company in Lang Son Province as well as some employees and collaborators of laborer supply companies Anbin Vina and HT Vina.

Under the prevailing regulations, workers must have negative Covid-19 test certificates to be allowed to work at factories in industrial parks in Bac Ninh. Therefore, employees and collaborators of Anbin Vina and HT Vina bought nearly 100 fake certificates from Duong and provided them to laborers.

According to the Bac Ninh People’s Procuracy, the violations of these people have caused serious consequences, increasing the pandemic transmission risk and affecting the fight against the pandemic in Bac Ninh and the entire country as a whole.