Tokyo prosecutors have charged three officials of a Japanese plastic company with bribing Vietnamese tax and customs officials to evade tax payments by the company’s branch in Vietnam.
The special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office on May 23 announced charges against Kaneto Fujino, 69 years old, former chairman of Tenma Corp., Tsutomu Hosogoe, 57 years old, a former director in charge of planning enterprises and Haruhiko Yoshida, 51 years old, former chairman of Tenma Vietnam Company, a subsidiary of Tenma, Japanese media reported on May 23.
“The Vietnamese government has ordered Tenma Vietnam to pay the equivalent of 1.8 billion yen ($14 million) in tax arrears for 2017.”
“In order to reduce that amount, the three suspects are accused of giving cash worth about 9.8 million yen to [customs and tax] officials at a subsidiary office in 2017,” the Asahi newspaper reported. believe.
The article said the report of the third-party committee established by Tenma said that Tenma Vietnam was exempt from paying the arrears tax after giving this amount.
Mr. Hosogoe and Mr. Yoshida are also accused of giving about 13.8 million yen to Vietnamese officials in 2019 for the same purpose.
Thus, the total amount of both bribes is 23.6 million yen, which seems to be lower than the amount of about 25 million yen in Japanese media about 2 years ago.
It is not clear whether this difference is due to the exchange rate at the time of the news or not and what kind of currency the bribe is given to Vietnamese officials.
Tenma said Monday that the company will “work to prevent a recurrence and work across the company to restore confidence in the company.”
Chairman of parent company Tenma Corp. in Tokyo was Kaneto Fujino charged with approving these payments, which allegedly violated Japan’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
Tenma is said to have self-reported these bribes to Tokyo prosecutors and Japanese investigative authorities through diplomatic channels to ask Vietnamese authorities to assist in the investigation.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 28, 2020, assigned the authorities to urgently check after the Japanese newspaper reported that Tenma plastic manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, voluntarily reported to the district prosecutor that Tokyo-based Tenma Vietnam bribed twice with about VND5.4 billion (at the exchange rate at that time) to some customs officers and the tax industry in Bac Ninh to get a tax reduction.
On May 26, 2020, the Minister of Public Security of Vietnam said that “the Vietnamese side is coordinating with the Japanese side to investigate suspicions about this incident.”
“Japan is the source of information about the case, we must have international cooperation to investigate the crime,” said Minister To Lam.
On August 3, 2020, Major General To An Xo replied on a matter related to the case that Tenma Vietnam Company was suspected of bribing civil servants, and tax and customs officers in Bac Ninh.
Chief of Office cum Spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security said that “two relevant representatives of the company, the general director of the company’s legal representative and the director of product administration, have both returned to Japan due to the COVID-19 epidemic and have not returned to Vietnam so far, the police investigation agency of the Ministry of Public Security has not been able to verify these two representatives from your side.”
“Up to now, the Ministry of Public Security has coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese representative agency in Vietnam to collect information and will investigate and clarify the case according to regulations.”
Investigation of Vietnam
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance asked the General Department of Taxation to temporarily suspend 5 civil servants and the General Department of Customs temporarily suspended 6 civil servants in Bac Ninh province.
However, on June 17, these civil servants returned to work normally after being suspended from work for 15 days and the inspection team of the Ministry of Finance finished the inspection at the Bac Ninh Customs Department and the Tax Department of Bac Ninh province. Ninh in September 2020.
In December 2020, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam submitted a report to the Prime Minister on the case of Tenma Vietnam Co., Ltd. (a company with 100% Japanese investment in Que Vo Industrial Park, Bac Ninh, Vietnam). bribed some Vietnamese officials and civil servants at the Bac Ninh Customs Department 25 million Japanese yen.
The inspection results of the Inspector of the Ministry of Finance at that time said that “Tenma Vietnam Company is an export processing enterprise, so it does not have to pay value-added tax, import tax and export tax and the declaration of this company was in accordance with the provisions of the law.”
The report at the time said that Tenma Company “does not evade taxes” in the process of importing components for production-export.”
However, the report of the Ministry of Finance to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that “concluding that Tenma Vietnam Co., Ltd. bribed the post-clearance inspection team or the tax inspection team” is still not possible to conclude” although this ministry has also coordinated with the investigation agency of the Ministry of Public Security to clarify.
“The inspection conclusions of the Ministry of Finance have been sent to the Corruption, Economic and Smuggling Investigation Police Department (C03), the Ministry of Public Security for further investigation and clarification,” the Phap Luat newspaper reported.
Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan was quoted by Thanh Nien at the time as saying that “We will also send the file to the Ministry of Public Security whether it is a bribe or not, they investigate.”
“Whether or not Vietnamese cadres and civil servants have accepted a bribe of 25 million yen from Tenma Company, the investigation agency of the Ministry of Public Security will conclude,” a leader of the Ministry of Finance’s Inspection at the time told Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Since Japan introduced the crime of overseas bribery into the Anti-Unfair Competition Act of 1998, there have only been five cases of prosecution of overseas bribery, as of the end of 2019.
In these five cases, there are two related to Vietnam. A related case discovered that Pacific Consulting International (PCI) had bribed a total of $820,000 to participate in a traffic project with Japanese loans in Ho Chi Minh City. The Tokyo district court sentenced four PCI employees to prison terms ranging from one and a half to two and a half years in 2009.
Another case was in February 2015 when a court in Tokyo heard the case that railway consulting company Japan Transportation Consultants Inc (JTC) had bribed in many countries, including Vietnam. The three former leaders of JTC were sentenced to two to three years in prison and JTC was fined 90 million yen.
Under current Japanese law, Japanese citizens who bribe foreign officials can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to 5 million yen.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
