Vietnamese provincial official detained for smuggling scandal

A vice chairman of the People's Committee of Vietnam's northern Lao Cai province was arrested Friday morning for his involvement in a tobacco smuggling and tax evasion case, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Vice chairman Nguyen Ngoc Kim was detained by local police on the charge of intentionally acting counter to state regulations in economic management, resulting in serious consequences.

He has granted 14 permits to several local enterprises, including the Thien Loi Hoa Company, helping them unlawfully importing at least 14,000 tons of tobaccos from a foreign country and dodging import taxes worth 7.2 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) ( 450,000 U.S. dollars).

In late 2006, the police detained two local investigators, who were in charge of probing into wrongdoings of the Thien Loi Hoa, for having received over 1 billion VND (62,500 dollars) in bribe from the company.

Source: Xinhua