Smuggling tens of tonnes of scrap, a sibling goes to court

Imported plastic scrap was seized by Customs forces at Hai Phong port in 2018. Photo: Ngọc Linh.

The four accused included Nguyen Duc Truong, Director of Duc Dat Import Export Trading Services Co., Ltd. (Ninh Binh); Nguyen Van Son, Director of Truong Thinh Packaging Private Enterprise (Ninh Binh); Duong Van Phuong, staff in charge of import and export division of Truong Thinh company and Pham Quoc Huy, a freelancer who runs an import and export service.

Notably, Nguyen Duc Truong and Nguyen Van Son are siblings.

They were accused related to the case of importing scrap that was investigated and prosecuted by the General Department of Vietnam Customs in coordination with the Police Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security (C03) since 2018.

Facing the violations related to scrap imports from late 2017 and early 2018, the General Department of Vietnam Customs has coordinated with other competent forces, especially police agencies, to strengthen investigation and handling.

Based on the investigation, in 2018, Customs authorities prosecuted a smuggling case involving several businesses, including Duc Dat Import Export Trading Services Co., Ltd. and Truong Thinh Packaging Private Company and at the same time, transferring the dossier to the Police Department for further investigation and handling.

Based on the results of the investigation, also in 2018, the Investigation Agency Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security (C03) has prosecuted the case, prosecutes accused and detained many related subjects including four of the accused as mentioned above.

After completing the investigation, C03 transferred the case dossier to the Supreme People's Procuracy, requesting the prosecution of the violators.

On December 25, 2019, the Supreme People's Procuracy had a prosecution indictment for the four accused due to committing the acts of "smuggling", including: Nguyen Duc Truong, Nguyen Van Son, Duong Van Phuong and Pham Quoc Huy.

According to the indictment, Truong Thinh Company was granted a Certificate of Eligibility for importing scrap by the Natural Resources and Environment Department of Ninh Binh Province, within three years from the date of August 18, 2014 to August 18, 2017.

Upon the expiration of the certificate, to continue importing scrap, Son agreed to let Truong and Phuong use the papers of Truong Thinh Company which had a fake signature signed by Son, actively contacted and found sourced of goods and illegally importing more than 25 million kg (25,000 tonnes) of plastic scrap.

To implement cargo clearance procedure for imported plastic scrap shipments, Truong and Phuong directed and personally made faked "Notice of imported scrap cargo for inspection and clearance" of the Natural Resources and Environment Department of Ninh Binh province and "Confirmation of blockade" of some banks for implementing customs clearance.

Besides making fraudulent documents as mentioned above, Phuong was also a person who directly sets up fake documents and sales contracts for Truong Thinh Company with a foreign partner and he was also the one who processed the manual money transfer abroad.

Regarding the above illegal imported plastic scrap, Truong Thinh Company sold to 11 domestic enterprises, collected more than VND 60.8 billion; after deducting taxes and expenses, illicit profit was more than VND 638 million.

In this case, Pham Quoc Huy was hired by the Truong to direct and operate the clearance of scrap plastic shipments of Truong Thinh Company at the southern ports. At the same time, Huy took advantage of bogus documents of Truong Thinh company to forge and instruct employees to make contracts, invoices and use fake documents to carry out import procedures for scrap plastic for a number of organisations and individuals with a total volume of nearly 32 million kg (32,000 tonnes), worth more than VND72.6 billion.