HCMC – Mai Thi Hoa, director of Ha Tinh Medical Products JSC in Ha Tinh Province, has been prosecuted and detained for her alleged involvement in a price gouging case, in which her firm sold industrial laundry equipment to four hospitals in the province at artificially inflated prices of VND12 billion, six times higher than the normal price.
Investigators of the north-central province issued a decision today, September 19, to prosecute and arrest the 46-year-old director on the charge of tax evasion as stipulated in Article 200 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017, reported Nguoi Lao Dong Online newspaper.
Earlier, between August and December 2018, the company purchased four industrial washer-dryer combos from The One Vietnam JSC, which is located in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District, at VND523.6 million per combo.
Ha Tinh Medical Products Company then sold the combos to four general hospitals in Can Loc, Duc Tho, Huong Son and Thach Ha districts.
Of the four washer-dryer combos, the two firms only signed a contract for one combo sold to Thach Ha District General Hospital, while the remaining combos were sold to the other three hospitals without any signed contract.
Ha Tinh Medical Products Company had made complete payments for the equipment to The One Vietnam. However, to inflate the prices of the equipment and regularize invoices, Ha Tinh Medical Products Company signed a contract with Bao Anh Medical Equipment JSC, whose headquarters is also in Hanoi, to purchase the four combos at VND10 billion.
The Ha Tinh medical firm then sold the combos to the four hospitals at VND12 billion and all the hospitals paid for the purchases in full.
Investigators are working on the case.
