Counterfeit millions of textbooks

A group of people colluded to target best-selling textbooks to make millions of fake books, then offered them online and put them in bookstores.

Defendants in the production and consumption chain of millions of fake textbooks - Photo: DOAN CUONG

On April 24, the People's Court of Da Nang City postponed the trial of the case of producing and trading fake textbooks due to the absence of many people with related rights and obligations, but information about this case made many people shudder because of its scale and danger.

Links to form printing complexes

The 13 defendants in the case include: Nguyen Trung Luat (director of Huy Truong Phat Packaging Printing Company Limited), Pham Ngoc Quang (director of Quang Thang Advertising Services Company Limited), Tran Huy Cuong (director of Cuong Phat Advertising Services and Trading Production Company Limited), Phan Xuan Nang, Pham Thach Kim Dien, Pham Duc Hau, Nguyen Van Tien, Pham Tin (all residing in Ho Chi Minh City), Le Ha Thanh (residing in Ba Ria - Vung Tau ), Le Duy Quang, Le Minh Tri, Nguyen Van Anh (all residing in Da Nang) and Tran Ngoc Tan (residing in Dong Nai).

According to the case, Huy Truong Phat, Quang Thang and Cuong Phat companies were not signed contracts by VietnamEducation Publishing House and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House to perform prepress, printing and finishing of textbooks according to regulations. Huy Truong Phat Company has been doing business in processing paper, calendars and books since 2021.

In June 2022, due to the company's loss-making business, Nguyen Trung Luat realized that textbooks from the Education Publishing House and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House were selling well on the market and had high profitability, so when he saw that Pham Ngoc Quang had an offset printing line available, Luat agreed with Quang to order Quang Thang Company to print fake textbooks from these publishers to sell on the market.

Law on purchasing machinery, forklifts and renting factories to process fake books, warehouses to store finished fake books...

When he needed a certain type of fake textbook, Luat informed Quang of the quantity to be printed, bought printing paper, and then brought it to Quang's two printing factories to organize the printing. Quang hired Phan Xuan Nang (manager and operator) and a number of workers to operate the machinery and equipment at the printing factory.

Quang assigned Tran Huy Cuong to make a zinc plate to print the fake book. When Luat sent the book sample, Cuong would scan the book into a file, edit the file, run the zinc plate, then order the delivery to Nang's printing factory. Upon receiving the zinc plate, Nang would print the number of fake books as agreed with Luat.

After Quang finished printing the books, Luat transported the semi-finished prints to the processing plant and hired temporary workers to perform the steps of cutting, folding paper, binding, and stamping. For the fake book stamps, Luat and his accomplices contacted people of unknown origin to buy them.

Hot sale because of high discount

Textbooks and machinery at the time the police caught the fake book production and consumption ring - Photo: HB

To sell fake books, around June 2022, Luat contacted Pham Thach Kim Dien to negotiate and agree to sell Dien fake textbooks from the two above publishers at a discount of 65 - 69% compared to the cover price.

The books purchased by Luat were resold by Dien to customers at a discount of 62 - 65% compared to the cover price, earning a profit of 3 - 4% on each fake book. Dien assigned his "subordinates" to manage the ordering, receiving, distributing and consuming of fake books.

At the same time, hire a 16-seat driver to transport fake books to bus stations and send them for sale.

From March to June 2024, Dien purchased 251 orders from Luat, a total of 1,176,744 fake textbooks of various types. Dien posted information about these books for sale on the Internet and sold them to many sources.

Dien contacted Le Duy Quang to sell fake books at a discount of 58 - 62% compared to the cover price. From May to June 2024, Quang ordered nine orders from Dien, a total of 19,804 fake textbooks of various types. In addition to buying fake books from Dien, Quang also ordered 416 fake books from Tran Ngoc Tan.

Quang hired his younger brother, Le Minh Tri, to help him count, receive fake books, and transport them for sale. Quang resold the fake books to bookstores and stationery stores at a discount of 30-40% compared to the cover price, earning a profit of about 10% on each book.

Dien also offered to sell fake textbooks to Nguyen Van Anh at a discount of 60 - 62% compared to the cover price. Anh bought a total of 4,795 fake books of various types from Dien.

Anh resold the fake books to bookstores and stationery stores and earned the difference. Likewise, Pham Tin bought 86,274 fake textbooks from Luat to retail at his bookstores.

Caught while receiving thousands of books

On the afternoon of June 14, 2024, in front of a house on An Nhon 3 Street, An Hai Bac Ward, Son Tra District (Da Nang), the Economic Police Department of Da Nang Police coordinated with the Vietnam Education Publishing House in Da Nang and the ward police to inspect and catch Le Duy Quang and Le Minh Tri receiving 29 boxes of textbooks including 2,955 Global English books of the Education Publishing House and Smart English books of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House from a taxi driver.

Checking inside the house, the authorities seized 849 more English books from the two publishers above. Of the total number of textbooks seized, Quang bought 3,388 from Pham Thach Kim Dien and 416 from Tran Ngoc Tan.

That same evening, at a house on Ngo Quyen Street (Da Nang), the economic police coordinated with related units to catch Nguyen Van Anh in possession of 1,720 textbooks. Anh had bought these books from Pham Thach Kim Dien to resell but had not yet sold them.

Producing more than 1.5 million fake textbooks

The indictment alleges that from January 2024 to June 15, 2024, Luat and Quang produced 1,648,737 fake textbooks with a total value according to the price printed on the cover of more than 51.1 billion VND and 347,220 semi-finished, unfinished printed copies of various types of Vietnam Education Publishing House and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House.

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DOAN CUONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/duong-day-lam-gia-hang-trieu-cuon-sach-giao-khoa-20250425073810013.htm