On April 5, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City opened an appeal hearing in the case of smuggling nearly 200 million liters of gasoline from Singapore to Vietnam.
Accused of being the ringleaders of the case, the two defendants Dao Ngoc Vien (55 years old, residing in Hai Phong City) and Phan Thanh Huu (66 years old, Director of Phan Le Hoang Anh Trading Company Limited) said that the sentence imposed by the People's Court of Dong Nai province was too harsh.
Defendant Phan Thanh Huu claimed that he only consumed 126 million liters of gasoline in Vietnam, and that more than 67 million liters were transported by ship by A Hung (unknown origin) to Cambodia for sale. Therefore, the amount of illegal profit was only about 100 billion VND, not 156 billion as stated in the first instance judgment. He requested the appellate court to reconsider this amount.
Defendant Phan Thanh Huu at the trial. (Photo: Kim Sang)
Defendant Vien said he had many mitigating circumstances that had not been considered by the court of first instance, including the fact of surrendering.
Defendant Vien said that he was not arrested as charged in the indictment, but that he voluntarily turned himself in. According to defendant Vien, he was taken by an acquaintance to meet Major General Vu Hong Van (then Director of Dong Nai Provincial Police, currently Director of the Internal Political Security Department, Ministry of Public Security - PV) in Hanoi and was advised to surrender.
Defendant Vien added that he voluntarily surrendered himself in hopes of a reduced sentence, but the indictment did not include this detail and instead charged the defendant with being detained, so he hoped the panel of judges would consider it.
When the representative of the People's Procuracy asked if there was a record of this, defendant Vien admitted that there was not.
According to the indictment, since 2019, Phan Thanh Huu, Dao Ngoc Vien and 3 others contributed a total of 53.4 billion VND to buy smuggled gasoline from Singapore to sell in Vietnam, dividing the money according to the ratio: Huu 40%, Vien and the rest received 60%.
Regarding the task, Huu directly took charge of the transaction, while Vien sent a ship to transport goods to Vietnam and anchored at buoy number 0. At this time, Huu sent his ship to pick up the goods and transport them to a floating warehouse located on the Hau River (in Vinh Long province).
The gasoline smuggled from Singapore is white, while gasoline in the Vietnamese market is yellow. To avoid detection, Huu bought additives to mix to create yellow. The formula is 1kg of yellow powder mixed with 5 liters of solvent and poured into 100m3 of gasoline, then sold to many provinces and cities in the South.
On the night of February 6, 2021, Dong Nai Provincial Police coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to mobilize more than 500 officers and soldiers to destroy this smuggling ring.
According to the indictment, from March 2020 to February 2021, Huu and Vien transported 48 trains with a total of more than 198 million liters of smuggled gasoline, worth nearly 2,800 billion VND, consumed more than 196 million liters of gasoline, earning hundreds of billions of VND, of which Huu alone received more than 105 billion VND.
During the smuggling process, Huu Cu Tu approached Ngo Van Thuy, the captain of the Anti-Smuggling Investigation Department (General Department of Customs) to bribe and ask for Thuy's help.
Tu gave Thuy 10,000 USD and an ATM card with 100 million VND. Then, Huu met Thuy directly and gave her another 500 million VND.
In addition to bribing Ngo Van Thuy, Huu and Tu also bribed a number of individuals who were soldiers in the Coast Guard and Border Guard.
The Dong Nai Provincial Police Department has transferred documents and evidence to the Ministry of National Defense's Criminal Investigation Department for investigation and handling according to authority.
At the first instance trial in December 2022, the Dong Nai Provincial People's Court sentenced defendant Dao Ngoc Vien to 17 years in prison and Phan Thanh Huu to 16 years in prison. The defendants were also given additional penalties, each fined 100 million VND.
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