Trouble for Vietnam Airlines?

[Clive]

Guess the locals would know more about this than us "outsiders". :sad:

Vietnam Airlines has been implicated in a $93 million money laundering racket smashed by the Australian Crime Commission last week.

Brother and sister Phat and Hang Huynh from Avondale Heights have appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with laundering money for organised crime syndicates in Melbourne and Sydney.

They were among nine people arrested during last week's raids on Vietnamese communities in the two cities.

The court heard Phat and Hang Huynh helped launder more than $93 million at their Vietnamese money transfer businesses in Footscray, St Albans, Bankstown and Cabramatta.

They are alleged to have fled to Vietnam in June after hearing a Vietnam Airlines pilot had been arrested for his role in the racket.

The court was told the airline has ferried more than $10.5 million overseas since July last year.

The Huynhs will reappear in July.

ABC Australia - News on Line 9th Oct.

[TWN PPL]

Engine maker Pratt & Whitney (P&W) has hit back at recent Vietnamese media
reports claiming national carrier Vietnam Airlines made the wrong decision
in choosing to equip its fleet of Boeing 777s with P&W engines.
State-owned carrier Vietnam Airlines is currently subject to a government
probe into its management and business dealings and in recent months there
have been articles critical of the airline including some that have
questioned why it chose P&W for its 777s - the carrier in early 2002 chose
PW4048 engines to power its 777-200ERs.
Some Vietnamese news organisations have suggested P&W was the wrong choice
and asserted that General Electric and Rolls-Royce engines are more suitable
for Vietnam Airline’s long-haul 777 operations.
But Pratt & Whitney has hit back and written to Vietnam Airlines, the Civil
Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) and the Vietnam government’s
Aviation Office to express its concerns at “misinformation” contained in
these reports.
“We strongly believe, as we did in 2002, that Vietnam Airlines, when it
chose the PW4084D engines to power its 777 fleet, made the best engine
choice given Vietnam Airlines’ stated specific requirements at that
time.” P&W senior vice president Michael Field says in a letter sent 27
June.