~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

Year :      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Vietnam mobile phone scam evaded millions in import taxes

HANOI - Vietnam's sole distributor of Nokia and Samsung mobile phones, whose director has been arrested for tax evasion, allegedly dodged more than 6.5 million dollars in import taxes, a police source said Wednesday.

Nguyen Gia Thieu, a French national and director of the company, Dong Nam, and nine other staff members were taken in for questioning this month after police launched a series of raids in the southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City. The mobile phone distributor has been accused of importing large volumes of contraband handsets from China by air and road since early 2000.

"According to our preliminary estimations, the amount of the fraud reaches 100 billion dongs (6.5 million dollars)", a police officer told AFP. If true, the case would be the country's largest-ever tax fraud, officials said. "We found not only evidence of tax evasion but also found traces of smuggling," the officer added.

Police searched the home of Thieu's fiance, former beauty queen Ha Kieu Anh, and seized about 6,000 mobile phones, 256,000 dollars in cash and 30 personal computers from company offices, according to press reports. Police have also begun investigations into customs officials believed to have been paid to turn a blind eye to the smuggling, local media reported. Reports say sales through authorised distributors account for 30 percent of the mobile phone market, leaving 70 percent to the black market.

Tax evasion is a growing problem in Vietnam where experts estimate that state coffers are deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars each year in fraud. The number of economic crimes rose sharply last year, prompting the government to ask courts to hand out stiff punishments to appear firm when dealing with corruption.

Agence France Presse - January 15, 2003.