On September 17, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City held the first-instance trial for Pham Van Tam (45), former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asanzo Group, charged with "smuggling" and "tax evasion"; and Pham Xuan Tinh (40), former General Director of Asanzo, charged with "tax evasion."

According to the indictment, Asanzo was first registered on October 20, 2016, with Pham Van Tam as the legal representative and director. In 2017, Pham Xuan Tinh was appointed General Director while Tam served as Chairman and oversaw company operations.

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Defendants Pham Van Tam (right) and Pham Xuan Tinh at trial. Photo: TP

From August 13 to October 7, 2019, a tax inspection team from the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department (now District II Tax Branch) conducted an audit of Asanzo’s tax compliance from 2016 through July 2019.

The investigation found that Asanzo purchased air conditioner parts from Tran Thoan Co., Ltd. (led by Tran Quoc Thoan) and contracted VTB Co., Ltd. (represented by Nguyen Van Hoang) to assemble these into finished air conditioner units.

These products were branded and packaged as Asanzo, then sold to Asanzo Refrigeration Company without issuing invoices or declaring them for tax purposes. These sales were not recorded in the company’s accounting books. Furthermore, Asanzo used illegally issued VAT invoices that inaccurately described finished products as “air conditioner parts” instead of full units, allowing them to misreport transactions as commercial activity.

Tran Thoan Co., Ltd. issued VAT invoices for finished products directly to Asanzo Refrigeration Company.

On October 30, 2019, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department transferred the case to the city police due to criminal indications.

A tax audit concluded that between 2017 and Q2/2019, Asanzo evaded taxes totaling VND 15.6 billion (approx. USD 625,000), including over VND 4.1 billion (USD 164,500) in VAT and over VND 11.5 billion (USD 460,000) in special consumption tax.

During the investigation, Pham Xuan Tinh admitted that he signed various documents related to company operations under the direction of Pham Van Tam.

On March 24, 2020, the Tax Department confirmed that Asanzo had fully repaid the total tax amount of VND 15.8 billion (approx. USD 633,000), including penalties and interest.

In addition, Tam was accused of using Sa Huynh Company to illegally import 1,300 toaster ovens worth VND 414.7 million (approx. USD 16,600) for Asanzo.

The court noted that neither defendant had aggravating circumstances. Both expressed remorse, cooperated with the investigation, and fully repaid the illegally gained funds.

As a result, the court sentenced Pham Van Tam to 4 years and 6 months in prison for smuggling, and issued a supplementary fine of VND 100 million (USD 4,000). For the tax evasion charge, he was fined VND 2 billion (USD 78,500) without imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Pham Xuan Tinh was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison and fined VND 50 million (USD 2,000) for tax evasion.

Thanh Phuong