Economic Crime Prevention: Police and Businesses Need Close-knit Cooperation

 

Colonel Nguyen Tien Luc, Chief of Economic Crime Investigation Department, presented the complicated nature of economic crimes in the past time, mainly in the field of infrastructure construction, manpower export, banking, intellectual property, fake goods and smuggling. He said many cases were very serious, citing more than 200 cases of VAT refund swindling, which cost nearly VND1,000 billion (US$62.5 million); Nguyen Lam Thai’s fraud to appropriate nearly VND40 billion of the post sector; Dutch Ambro Bank’s staff fraud of more than VND80 billion from Incombank; and Tran Thi Bach Linh and her accessories in Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Hanoi and Haiphong producing fake foreign-branded spirits with nearly 5,000 bottles.

 

Assessing the scope of activities of current high-tech crimes, Mr Nguyen Ba Thuoc, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), said telecom tariff stealing is a new type of crime in which criminals use high-tech devices to divert international calls to Vietnam in order to seek financial gains. Most telecom companies encounter this type of crime. Mr Thuoc said the official damage from this type of crime has not been recorded, but it must be very big, affecting business operations of service providers and reducing State budget tax collections. He proposed the Ministry of Public Security quickly find appropriate measures to prevent this type of crime to help telecom service providers feel secure in business and force evildoers to obey the law. He also suggested the Ministry of Public Security and VCCI explore more new issues of integration for enterprises, as well as preventive measures.

 

Mr Nguyen Tien Dung, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Tobacco Corp. (Vinataba), also pointed the complication and seriousness of intellectual property violations. He said the Vinataba trademark in China and 11 countries and territories has been abused by Indonesia’s Putra Stabat Industry Company, which expected to sell back to the official owner of that trademark if it wanted to do the business in the place with the presence of Putra Stabat Industry Company. Vinataba has taken back the Vinataba trademark in Laos and Cambodia, thanks to assistance from relevant authorities. Meanwhile, in other countries, Vinataba is waiting for review of the case from competent agencies there. He proposed relevant agencies introduce policies to encourage and assist enterprises in registering for trademark protection in other countries. At the same time, he proposed the expansion of penalties against intellectual property violators and criminals producing, trafficking and trading fake goods. He said administrative penalties are of limited use against this type of criminal.

 

In spite of obtaining certain results in economic crime prevention, Mr Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of VCCI, thought the relationship between the police and enterprises should be further tightened with equality, reliability and cooperation. He said it is advisable to reach a balance between only addressing a few bad enterprises and applying regulations too strictly raising difficulties for the entire business community. In case the law is not clearly defined, solutions should back legitimate benefits of enterprises. Also according to Mr Loc, the business community is waiting for policy amendments such as reducing the detainment modes applied to economic criminals to ensure the smooth operations of the enterprises.

 

After hearing ideas from enterprises, Lieutenant General Tran Van Thao, Chief of General Department of Police, said the police force and the business community need to exchange and cooperate in criminal prevention more regularly in the coming time. He asked enterprises to report to the Ministry of Public Security through the hotline when they found illegal acts in order to help the police force quickly solve the problem. He added the criminal investigation police will initiate information exchange with enterprises to understand new methods of criminals, partners, domestic laws, and international laws and practices to prevent criminals. He also proposed enterprises protect themselves and take initiative to prevent any breach of economic relations.
Nguyen Thoa