Arresting tycoon Trinh Suong - 'boss' of fake gasoline ring in the West

In recent days, the petroleum business community in the Southwest region has been shaken by the news that tycoon Trinh Suong (50 years old, Chairman of the Board of Members and Director of My Hung Company Limited in Soc Trang) was arrested by Dak Nong Police for his behavior.Production and trade of counterfeit gasoline.

Mr. Vo Van Khoa - Chairman of the People's Committee of Lich Hoi Thuong town (Tran De district, Soc Trang) said that Mr. Suong's family is very trusted in the locality. "Mr. Suong does a lot of charity work, often giving ambulances to hospitals, building charity houses for the poor... I and the people are surprised by his illegal enrichment," Mr. Khoa said.

Mr. Suong was born into a large family. Before the 90s, his parents owned a cargo ship transporting goods and rice to supply hubs in the West. In 1996, Mr. Suong got married and established My Hung Company Limited, specializing in petroleum trading.

This tycoon's business is booming. Before being arrested, he was the owner of many gas stations on Highway 1 in Soc Trang, and other provinces and cities such as Dak Nong, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Thap, Can Tho City, Hau Giang...

As for the geographical areas, they were very impressed with the generosity of their senior Trinh Suong, when he gave them billions of dong in credit for purchasing goods. This further increased the revenue of My Hung Company Limited in supplying fuel because gas station owners everywhere came to place orders.

In addition, this tycoon also owns a fleet of dozens of fuel transport vehicles, from small tankers to tractors, and has 3 fuel barges that are regularly anchored in Ho Chi Minh City to transport fuel everywhere. Recently, he has also spent hundreds of billions of dong to buy real estate, restaurants, hotels...

During the course of doing business, Mr. Suong's company has changed its business license 18 times, with a charter capital of 60 billion VND, and only one member. Currently, the company has a total outstanding debt of more than 560 billion VND (short-term loans) with 4 bank branches in Sa Dec City (Dong Thap) and Soc Trang City.

Four years ago, Mr. Suong's business was "touched" when Soc Trang police inspected the Dong Hai ship while it was pumping gasoline to another ship to transport it to Soc Trang for the company run by his brother-in-law. Suspecting that the local tycoon was doing illegal business, but not having enough evidence to investigate further, the police only decided to fine him 50 million VND for the act.Buying and selling gasoline with entities outside the distribution system.

The illegal activities of tycoon Trinh Suong were exposed during the Lunar New Year this year, when Dak Nong police discovered that one of his gas stations in Gia Nghia town was selling more than 10 cubic meters of fake gasoline. Expanding the investigation, the police discovered two other stores with similar behavior in Dak Song and Dak R'lap districts (Dak Nong).

Dak Nong police determined that the case was of a particularly serious nature; occurring on a very large scale, with a wide scope in many provinces and cities across the country, so they reported to the Minister of Public Security to establish a special investigation committee.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Le Quy Vuong was assigned as Head of the special task force, coordinating with Dak Nong Police and the Department of Police Investigation of Crimes of Corruption, Economy, Smuggling... to investigate and solve the case.

From May 28 to June 2, hundreds of police officers were mobilized to simultaneously destroy Mr. Suong's fake gasoline production and trading ring. Searching 6 locations in Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho City, Hau Giang and Soc Trang, the police caught 4 groups of people, led by Trinh Suong, Dinh Chi Dung, Nguyen Ngoc Quan and Nguyen Thi Thu Hoa, mixing and trading fake gasoline; confiscated many related documents and evidence...

The investigation results determined that Mr. Suong and his accomplices took advantage of their status as petroleum businesses and traders to produce fake gasoline. From 2017 to now, this network has spent 3,000 billion VND to buy solvents to mix into poor quality gasoline, plus RON boosters and colorants to create fake E5 RON 92 and RON 95 gasoline.

According to the police, Mr. Suong and his accomplices admitted that over the past two years, they had sold nearly 19.5 million liters of fake gasoline, earning an illegal profit of more than 130 billion VND. However, according to the investigation agency, over the past two years, Trinh Suong's network has sold 6 million liters of various types of fake gasoline to the market each month. The results of the examination showed that the fake gasoline was not of guaranteed quality and could damage the engine.

Colonel Le Vinh Quy - Deputy Director of Dak Nong Provincial Police said that Trinh Suong's network operated very sophisticatedly. The areas and warehouses where the fake gasoline was mixed and blended were guarded very carefully. This behavior even took place on ships and at sea to avoid the police.

To date, the police have seized more than 3.2 million liters of various solutions (including mixed mixtures to create fake gasoline, unmixed solvents, solutions...), along with 50 kg of colorants and many objects and documents related to the suspects' criminal acts.

Dak Nong police have prosecuted 23 defendants, temporarily detained 22 people (including Mr. Suong); and applied preventive measures to prohibit 1 defendant from leaving their place of residence. The decisions and arrest warrants have been approved by the People's Procuracy at the same level.

Hoang Hanh