Hai Phong – 14 people were accused of taking bribes and abusing their positions and powers to facilitate businesses to falsely declare and illegally export more than 13,000 containers of wood.
On the morning of August 6, Hai Phong People’s Court opened the first-instance trial of 22 defendants in the case of smuggling, bribery, abuse of position and power while performing official duties and fraud to appropriate property occurring at Tai Loc International Production and Trade Company Limited, Hai Phong Port Customs Branch, Region 2 (now Region 3 Customs Branch).
Among the 8 people prosecuted for the crime of Abusing positions and powers while performing official duties are Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (56 years old, former Head of Port 2 Customs Branch), Vu Ngan Chau (62 years old, former Deputy Head of Port 2 Customs Branch), and former customs officials Nguyen Anh Duc (39 years old), Tran Quoc Hung (51 years old), Bui Tien Hau (37 years old), Pham Van Dinh (55 years old), Nguyen Van Long (56 years old), Truong Binh Loc (39 years old).
Six other former customs officers were prosecuted for accepting bribes, including: To Thi Thu Huong (44 years old, Deputy Director of Port 2 Customs Branch); Trinh Dang Tai (46 years old), Pham Tung Duong (33 years old), Dang Hoang Lan (41 years old), Bui Anh Tien (56 years old), Vu Xuan Truong (41 years old).
Nguyen Tai Loc (34 years old, Director of Tai Loc Company) and 4 others were prosecuted for Smuggling . Ngo Quang Tuyen (36 years old, former Chief Accountant of Tai Loc Company) and Nguyen Quang Long (30 years old, service employee) were prosecuted for Smuggling and Bribery . Nguyen Thi Thuy (44 years old, freelance worker) was prosecuted for Fraudulent Appropriation of Property.
Of the 22 defendants, 14 are former customs officers in Hai Phong. Photo: Le Tan
According to the indictment, from January 2021 to January 2024, Nguyen Tai Loc and Ngo Quang Tuyen established 13 companies and borrowed the legal entities of 3 other companies to carry out smuggling by falsely declaring and creating fake records of volume and value to illegally export 13,376 containers of peeled wood (thin wood panels peeled from round logs). The total value of the smuggled goods was determined to be more than 1,800 billion VND, with illegal profits of more than 210 billion VND.
Specifically, Tuyen hired Long to provide customs services at the port, helping him declare a lower volume than the actual volume. In return, Long would pay customs 100,000 VND/declaration and 800,000 VND/container for customs clearance.
Long then contacted step 2 customs officer Trinh Dang Tai to help approve the fast customs declarations. In May 2023, Tai transferred to another job, and Duong was responsible for supporting and receiving Long’s money.
Two months later, Long met with Duong and proposed to reduce the customs clearance fee to 600,000 VND/container due to the difficulties of the business. This was agreed by the Deputy Director of the Customs Sub-Department of Port 2, To Thi Thu Huong.
The People’s Procuracy determined that after receiving the extra payment from the enterprise, the civil servant in step 2 and the leader of the Customs Sub-Department of Port 2 divided the money among themselves according to the ratio. In which, the officer receiving and processing the customs declaration received the entire 100,000 VND per declaration and 15% of the customs clearance fee.
The remaining 85% of the customs clearance fee will be paid to Huong. Of this amount, Huong is accused of profiting 15%, and giving the rest to the Head of the Customs Procedure Team, Dang Hoang Lan.
Receiving the money, Lan enjoyed 20% profit, paid 30% to Branch Director Hien, Deputy Branch Director Chau 30% and kept the rest for general activities of the Procedure Team.
According to the above money division ratio, the People’s Procuracy determined that Huong personally benefited 4.4 billion VND, Lan benefited 864 million VND, and Tai benefited 845 million VND.
In the group of leaders of the Sub-Department, Ms. Hien and Chau knew that the Procedure Team supported fast customs clearance and reduced storage costs, so they skipped some steps in receiving, processing, and checking goods for the Tai Loc Company group. The two leaders then received money from the business many times, through their subordinates, each of them 648 million VND.
The trial is scheduled to last three days.
Source: vnexpress.net
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