Four more arrested in massive counterfeiting milk powder scandal in Hanoi

The Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security has arrested four other people for fraud, bribery and mediation after bribes after uncovering a large fake milk powder production and sales network on Hanoi and nearby provinces.

In connection with the large -scale production, sales and the sale of fake milk powder in Hanoi and neighboring provinces, the investigation police of the Ministry of Public Security made decisions on law enforcement and arrest four people on the evening of April 28th.

Together with the arrests, the authorities led arrest warrants in the residences of the accused due to criminal offenses, including “fraudulent appropriation of property”, “bribes” and “mediation of struggling”. The defendants include Nguyen van Quan for “fraudulent appropriation of property”, Vu Manh Cuong and Hoang Manh HA for “providers of bribes” and Pham Gia Khai for “mediating bribe”.

As already reported by the SGGP newspaper, the Ministry of Public Safety on April 10th initiated a criminal investigation that had followed and arrested four suspects for “manufacture and trade in fake fake as food products (fake milk powder) and a further seven people due to” violation of accounting regulations “.

During the examination, the police powdered 90 batches of milk and nutritional products. The analysis confirmed that 12 batches contained certain substances with less than 70 percent of the declared quality, which were classified as fake. The remaining 78 batches are still being examined to determine violations in connection with the production and the sale of fake foods.

The investigators found that the suspects had retained two separate accounting books since 2021 to hide the actual income and illegally distribute the profits among shareholders, which caused considerable tax losses. Rance Pharma escaped VAT payments of 24 billion VAT, while Hacofood avoided paying around 4.4 billion and.

The authorities also discovered bribes, bribes and fraud. After an inspection and confiscation of goods by the environmental police on December 27, 2024, Hoang Manh Ha and Vu Manh Cuong collapsed to “solve” the matter through bribery in order to avoid criminal charges and instead put administrative penalties.

Cuong created $ 150,000 and handed it to HA, who then contacted Pham Gia Khai, the former CEO of Vietnam Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company. Khai, in turn, tried to deliver the money to Nguyen van Quan, an independent businessman, who incorrectly claimed to have high -ranking connections that can alleviate the legal consequences. Khai trusted this claims and made the 150,000 US dollars for personal use.

By Do Trung – translated by Thuy Doan