'King car logo' selling ring bribed 80 police and traffic inspectors

Thai and his accomplices bribed 80 traffic police and inspectors to sell "royal car logos", but no one admitted to it so it could not be prosecuted.

The Supreme People's Procuracy has just completed the indictment to prosecute Nguyen Van Thoi (41 years old), Le Thi Cam Van (35 years old) - the leaders of the "royal car logo" trading ring, rescuing overloaded vehicles - and 7 accomplices for the crimes of Bribery and Bribery brokerage.

In connection with the case, Nguyen Canh Chan (44 years old, residing in Dong Nai) was accused of Bribery Brokerage.

Each logo is sold for 2.5-3 million VND per month. Photo: HP

According to the investigation results, in 2014-2015, Thoi's group set up a network to sell "royal car logos" to drivers and truck owners who often travel in Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City to avoid being checked and fined by traffic police when carrying overloaded goods. Each logo is sold for 2.5-3 million VND per month.

After "shaking hands" with traffic police and traffic inspectors, Thoi and Tran Quoc Thai (46 years old) printed a logo with the number 68 and the words "Thanh Do Garage", while Van printed a "cargo truck" logo to sell to car owners to stick on their windshields - a symbol for traffic police who have received protection money - to avoid being whistled for inspection.

Thoi and his accomplices sold the logos for nearly 23 billion VND. They used part of the money to bribe traffic police and pay fines for car owners who bought the logos (unfortunately they were still fined), and pocketed the rest for personal expenses.

In which, Chan acted as a broker to bribe the traffic police and traffic inspectors of Dong Nai province nearly 1.3 billion VND; benefited 300 million VND. Thai admitted to bribing more than 2.2 billion VND, pocketing 360 million for himself; Thoi bribed the police 5 billion VND, benefited nearly 17.5 billion VND.

Van alone sold the logo for nearly 8 billion VND, bribed nearly 630 million VND, illegally profited nearly 1.6 billion VND, and paid the remaining fines to the drivers who were prosecuted.

Thoi and his accomplices said they had bribed 62 traffic police officers and 18 traffic inspectors in many provinces and cities. Authorities summoned these officers but none of them admitted to it.

Van at the time of arrest. Photo: HP

The investigation agency determined that the sale of logos to collect money to bribe some officials to avoid penalizing overloaded vehicles was true. However, apart from the defendants’ statements, there were no documents or other evidence proving that the police and traffic inspectors had received bribes, so there was no basis for prosecution.

Nearly two years ago, hundreds of police raided several houses in Ho Chi Minh City and arrested seven suspects involved in the ring. Thoi quickly fled but later turned himself in.

According to VNE