On November 15, 2020, the Huu Nghi Customs Branch (Lang Son Customs Department) decided to transfer file of administrative violations showing criminal signs to criminally prosecute HM Company at 12 Lao Dong street, Loc Binh town, Loc Binh district, Lang Son province.

Customs officers of Huu Nghi Customs Branch instruct a customs declarant
to carry out procedures. Photo: H.N

Complex import goods and abdicate responsibility

According to the record, on October 31, a representative of HM Import-Export One member Company Limited (HM Company) carried out import procedures at Huu Nghi Border Gate Customs Branch. Per the company’s declaration, the imported shipment included five items, the cargo was registered to be transported on a vehicle with Chinese license plate and transshipped to a vehicle with Vietnamese license plate. The same day, Huu Nghi Customs branch conducted customs clearance for the shipment.

On November 1, 2020, realising that the shipment of HM Company had many suspicious signs, the Huu Nghi Customs branch announced to stop the goods via the customs control area and made a decision to inspect the shipment.

On afternoon of November 2, at the site for goods inspection and gathering of Xuan Cuong Co.,Ltd witnessed by HM Company, Huu Nghi Customs Branch and Economic Police Division (Lang Son Police) conducted a physical inspection. Inspection results showed that the shipment included 27 items, of which five items were packed in 169 sacks which were women's underwear and belly belts. The quantity of goods in the first item lacked compared to the declaration; the quantity of goods in the second, the fourth and the fifth items were in excess compared with the declaration; and there had no goods quantity in the third item. In addition to the above five items, Huu Nghi Customs discovered that 22 items were not declared by HM Company.

To handle the case, Huu Nghi Customs Branch issued a decision to temporarily seise infringing goods and vehicle of the shipment. At the same time, it requested NIKE Vietnam Company to coordinate in verification of goods infringing intellectual property rights and asking Customs branch of Goods Verification No.6 to perform an analysis of the ingredients, names, and quantity of imported goods. After two days (on November 11, 2020), NIKE Vietnam Company responded and determined 700 women's bras were fake trademark goods and were not manufactured by NIKE or permitted to produce and distribute on the market.

The Customs-Police forces worked directly with Do Huu Tuan - the driver of the car with Vietnamese license plate. Tuan said that Nguyen Thi Que in Bac Giang city gave him the phone number of.Vi Van Men to contact and transport goods from Huu Nghi Border Gate to a warehouse in Thanh Tri (Ha Noi). After moving to Huu Nghi border gate, Tuan was given the phone number of Luong Duc Khanh. After contacting, Khanh asked him to drive the car to the warehouse No.3 to receive the goods.

Working with Luong Duc Khanh, born on December 21, 1988- Director of HM Company said HM Company was established from September 10, 2020 and operated mainly in customs services for import and export enterprises. All operation and administration related to customs declaration services for other enterprises are authorisedMen to perform.

For the above shipment, the order with the Chinese partner was made directly by Men. Khanh said that he did know about the declaration of the goods quantity. All transactions, purchases, and orders related to the shipment are done by Men.

At the working session with the Customs, Men said that he transacted with the Chinese partners via mobile phone and Wechat. The goods quantity was implemented in accordance with the sales contract, commercial invoice and packing list provided to the Customs. All the process of freight forwarding of goods was informed to him by Chinese customers via mobile phone. After the goods arrived to the site of Xuan Cuong Company, because the customs procedures were not implemented, Men asked Lap to make procedures for depositing goods at the warehouse of Xuan Cuong Co., Ltd.

Men hired other person to make the sale contract as per the contents provided by him and sent this contract to Khanh for signing. Regarding the goods storage at the warehouse, Men he asked Tien Cuong Co., Ltd. to carry out procedures to deposit goods. He did not remember the specific quantity of goods. Regarding the reason for more than two months when the goods arrived to the border gate but HM Company did not implement a customs declaration, he said he did not have enough money to pay tax and was carrying out procedures for the establishment of the company and insufficient purchaser.

Regarding the quantity of undeclared goods, Men said that he did not know the quantity of excess goods, he only knew there were 169 sacks of clothes, 2-3 items of balloons and easel of other companies in the Chinese vehicle.

Sufficient grounds to prosecute the case

Based on the case file and the results of verification, working with relevant individuals, Huu Nghi Customs Branch determined that Luong Duc Khanh- Director is a person who knows the actual quantity of import goods transported to Vietnam inconsistent with the statement in the customs declaration but still signed the sale contract provided by Men. Men also requested his staff to carry out the procedures to bring the above goods into Vietnam. Khanh's presentation to the Customs was unreasonable, because the above goods were counted and legalised its documents after they were traded between two other entities.

Huu Nghi Customs Branch also determined that from the shipment was seised to current date, HM Company did not present any documents of the Chinese partners showing the incorrect delivery of goods and Huu Nghi Customs did not receive any documents from any unit about the delivery or incorrect sending of the goods.

Based on the case’s file and the provisions of Point c, Clause 2 of Article 18 and Clause 1 of Article 29 of the Law on Customs, HM Company is responsible for the declaration and performing customs procedures for the shipment.

Huu Nghi Customs Branch emphasised that HM company did not declare 22 of 27 items with the value of more than VND 2.6 billion; intentionally implementing the procedures to receive and transport the goods to the domestic market for illegal profits.

The shipment was delivered from August 2020, during the two months, HM Company carried out procedures to deposit the warehouse, conducted an inspection of the goods until it was discovered without any notice of wrong delivery or insufficient goods quantity. Therefore, there are grounds to identify the act of importing the above shipment with signs of smuggling as prescribed in Article 88 of the Penal Code, and grounds for Customs to prosecute criminal case for "Smuggling" under Article 188 of the 2015 Penal Code.

According to Huu Nghi Customs branch, after prosecuting a criminal case, during investigation, the investigating agency will consider the responsibility of the individuals in this case.