14 former customs officers to be brought to trial

(Chinhphu.vn) - On June 26, the Hai Phong City People's Court will open the first instance trial of the defendants in the case of "Smuggling, bribery, bribery, abuse of position and power while performing official duties and fraud to appropriate property". Of the 22 defendants in this case, 14 are former customs officers.

Photo: Illustration

The case occurred at Tai Loc International Trading Production Company Limited (Tai Loc Company), Hai Phong Port Customs Branch, Region 2 and related units. Of the 22 defendants in the case, 14 are former customs officers.

Accordingly, Nguyen Tai Loc, Director of Tai Loc Company, was brought to trial for the crime of "Giving bribes". Defendant Ngo Quang Tuyen (Chief Accountant of Tai Loc Company) was prosecuted for two crimes: "Smuggling" and "Giving bribes".

Six defendants who were former customs officials were prosecuted for the crime of "Accepting bribes". Among them were To Thi Thu Huong, former Deputy Head of the Immigration Procedures Team, Port 2 Customs Branch; Dang Hoang Lan, former Head of the Procedures Team, Port 2 Customs Branch.

Regarding the 8 defendants brought to trial for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties", there are Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, former Head of Customs Branch 2; Vu Ngan Chau, former Deputy Head of Customs Branch 2... Relatedly, 1 defendant was prosecuted for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to the indictment, from the beginning of 2021 to the beginning of 2024, Ngo Quang Tuyen and Nguyen Tai Loc used the legal entity Tai Loc Company to falsely declare the volume, unit price and create a fake list of forest products in the customs declaration file to clear 13,376 containers/1,698 customs declarations of peeled wood panels from acacia, eucalyptus, rubber, and pine, with a total value of smuggled goods of more than 1,800 billion VND.

The prosecution agency determined that the amount of money that defendant Ngo Quang Tuyen illegally profited from smuggling was more than 210 billion VND.

To carry out illegal customs clearance, the group of defendants belonging to Tai Loc Company made "extra payments" to civil servants, officers, and leaders of Port 2 Customs Branch and agreed with Bao Linh Appraisal Joint Stock Company to provide certificates according to the Customs Declaration.

In this case, the defendants, civil servants and leaders of the Customs Procedure Team of Port 2, were determined by the prosecution agency to have colluded with Nguyen Quang Long (representative of the Tai Loc Company group) to receive "extra" money to support quick customs clearance and ignore violations.

Regarding the defendants who committed the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties", the prosecution agency stated that Nguyen Thi Thu Hien (Head of the Department) and Vu Ngan Chau (Deputy Head of the Department) knew that the Customs Support Procedure Team reduced storage and yard costs, skipped some steps of receiving, processing, and checking goods of the Tai Loc Company group, but did not take timely measures to direct and prevent it.

The two defendants mentioned above also received money from the group of businesses many times, with each person receiving nearly 650 million VND.

According to the prosecution, from July 2022 to January 2024, 14 civil servants, officers, and leaders of Port 2 Customs Branch received extra payments and "thank you" money from the group of defendants smuggling Tai Loc Company, totaling 8.1 billion VND to ignore the violations.

The trial is expected to last several days.

Toan Thang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/14-cuu-can-bo-hai-quan-sap-bi-dua-ra-xet-xu-102250609092503364.htm