Police investigate Vietnam mobile phone smuggling scam
HANOI - Federal investigators and Ho Chi Minh City police have completed their investigation into a massive mobile phone smuggling scam that involved airline crews and customs officers, state-controlled media reported Friday. A French-Vietnamese businessman Nguyen Gia Thieu, 39, is likely to face smuggling and tax evasion charges.
According to the investigation report, Thieu ran an operation that smuggled 16,682 mobile phone sets worth 52.2 billion dong (US$3.3 million) into Vietnam between 1999 and 2002, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said. State-controlled media earlier reported the phones were coming from Hong Kong and Cambodia.
Thieu allegedly paid his business associates US$22 to US$35 for each phone smuggled into the country. Part of that money was used to bribe Vietnam Airlines crew members. At the time he headed Dong Nam Company Ltd. It was set up 10 years ago as Vietnam's chief distributor of Nokia and Samsung mobile phones.The two mobile phone manufactures have recently appointed new distributors.
Thieu, a French citizen of Vietnamese origin, was arrested in January 2003, along with his chief accountant Ngo Van Toan, and his predecessor at the company, Nguyen Thanh Tung. Police have recommended prosecution against Thieu and 26 others, including 16 customs officials at the country's two main airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The investigation, conducted by the Ministry of Public Security and police, also found that Thieu had illegally transferred US$21.1 million overseas to pay for his smuggled mobile phones, the newspaper said. In addition, the company had declared the price of its legally imported mobile phones lower than value to evade taxes totaling 108 billion dong (US$6.9 million), according to the investigation report.
Vietnam, with a population of 80 million, currently has 3 million mobile phone subscribers.
The Associated Press - March 26, 2004
|