Nguyen Gia Thieu (second from the right).

VietNamNet - The HCM City People's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by former General Director Nguyen Gia Thieu of Dong Nam against the 20-year imprisonment sentence for mobile phone smuggling and tax evasion on March 24.

However, the jury accepted Thieu's petition for a reduction of 1 billion VND of the administrative fine to 98.2 billion VND. The panel did not change its decision to confiscate 200,000 USD found at the residence of former 1992 Miss Viet Nam Ha Kieu Anh, who is Thieu's wife.

Three other accessories to Thieu who had been sentenced from three to four years' imprisonment were mitigated to probation. They are Do Lien Anh, a staff member of Thieu's Dong Nam Trade and Telecommunication Services Corporation, and Nguyen Dinh Hieu and Dang Manh Quyen who are customs officers of Ha Noi Postal and Noi Bai Customs Departments.

Under the cover of deceitful mobile phone import contracts between Thieu's company and its associate in HongKong from 1999 to 2002, he and his accomplices understated the prices of more than 218,000 mobile phone sets, evading nearly 100 billion VND worth of import taxes.

(Source: VNA)