The Supreme People's Procuracy has transferred to the HCMC People’s Court the case of Nguyen Dang Thao, former CEO of Euro Auto, who stands accused of smuggling 91 BMW cars, reported the local media.

Nguyen Dang Thao, former CEO of Euro Auto 

Two other defendants also face prosecution under the same count: Tran Hai Dang, deputy director of Viet A Corporation, and Nguyen Thi Minh Yen, former head of the trade and planning division at Euro Auto, which was once the authorized distributor of BMW automobiles in Vietnam.

According to the Supreme People's Procuracy, from 2007 to December 2016, Euro Auto signed 473 contracts to import nearly 9,400 BMWs, Mini Coopers and Motorrads, at a total cost of nearly VND5.5 trillion (US$237.1 million). Euro Auto had hired Viet A Corporation to complete customs clearance procedures for these vehicles, which Dang handled personally.

In 2013, Dang falsified invoices, purchase contracts and a packing list to complete customs clearance procedures for importing 91 BMW vehicles. The prices of these vehicles on the forged invoices were lower than their original prices.

Dang later transferred these documents to Yen so she could submit them to Thao for approval. In this way, they caused losses of over VND6.45 billion in import duty revenue for the State.

As all 91 cars have been sold to customers for VND206.8 billion and the customers did not know that Euro Auto had used forged documents to import them, these cars will not be recalled.

In addition, Thao and Euro Auto Chairman Simon Andrew Rock were accused of evading the payment of VND7 billion in special consumption tax; smuggling 133 BMW cars, which have been abandoned at Saigon Port; and transferring pricing to evade paying VND8 billion in import duties for 81 other BMW cars between 2011 and 2012.

However, Rock and some other persons with interest in the case have fled Vietnam. In April last year, the Investigative Police Agency, under the Ministry of Public Security, decided to separately investigate these violations.

SGT