Defendant Mai Phan Loi received 4 years in prison for 'Tax evasion'

On January 11, the Hanoi People's Court tried defendant Mai Phan Loi (born 1971), Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Center for Community Education and Communication - MEC, former journalist and Bach Hung Duong (born 1975), former Director of the Center for Community Education and Communication - MEC) for "Tax evasion".

According to the indictment and the trial, Mai Phan Loi, as Chairman of the Founding Council and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the MEC Center, in reality, Mai Phan Loi is the person who manages all activities of the MEC Center.

From 2012 to March 2021, Loi directed Bach Hung Duong and staff of the MEC Center to receive nearly 20 billion VND to carry out agreed-upon work for domestic and foreign organizations, but did not pay.financial reports, not submitting corporate income tax finalization declaration, not submitting value added tax declaration to tax authorities as prescribed, not having accounting books as prescribed. The amount of tax evaded is nearly 2 billion VND, corresponding to the amount MEC Center received of nearly 20 billion VND.

At the trial, defendant Mai Phan Loi realized his actions were wrong and asked the panel of judges to consider reducing his sentence.

Mai Phan Loi (wearing glasses on the right) and Bach Hung Duong in court. Photo: Trong Phu

Before working at MEC, Mai Phan Loi was Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Chief Representative of a press agency's Hanoi office. In 2016, Mai Phan Loi had his press card revoked by the Ministry of Information and Communications for "seriously insulting the honor of the Vietnam People's Army, causing deep harm to the families, comrades, relatives, and comrades of officers and soldiers who were injured while on duty, and damaging the reputation of the press team".

The panel of judges determined: The two defendants had committed tax evasion many times with many different contracts, each time evading about 100 million in tax. Therefore, it is necessary to isolate the defendants from society for a period of time. However, both were determined to have mitigating circumstances such as repentance. Mai Phan Loi was determined to have influenced his family to pay money to remedy the consequences; during his work, he received many certificates of merit, his family had contributed to the revolution...

The Hanoi People's Court sentenced defendant Mai Phan Loi to 4 years in prison and defendant Bach Hung Duong to 2 years and 6 months in prison for "tax evasion".

Regarding civil liability, the tax evasion money was managed and used by defendant Loi for the operations of the MEC Center, so he must compensate himself. Of the nearly 2 billion VND in tax evasion, Mai Phan Loi's family has paid 800 million VND to remedy the consequences, so this defendant must pay an additional nearly 1.2 billion VND./.