May 22, 2006

US charges vice-president of Vietnamese seafood company with trade fraud

Ngyuen Buu Huy, Vice-president of Panhandle Trading, a Vietnamese seafood company and Danny D. Nguyen, a Vietnamese American, are charged with importing falsely labeled catfish into the US from Vietnam and marketing those fish as grouper in the US and Canadian seafood markets.

The Vietnamese businessman was detained in Belgium and may be extradited to the US. The detention came last Thursday after the US announced on May 8 that a federal grand jury had returned a 42 count indictment.

An official of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep) said some of the information in the indictment on Huy was incorrect and the fisheries ministry would work out plans to handle the case.

The indictment filed in the US federal court alleges that between May 2002 and April 2005, Danny D. Nguyen and Buu Huy partook in the misrepresentation to evade import duties.

Nguyen was identified as the vice president of Panhandle Trading Inc (PTI), a company that imported fish to Panhandle Seafood Inc (PSI) of which he was also vice president. PSI acquired frozen fish fillets either from Vietnamese exporters or from PTI. Nguyen was also the deputy director of the An Giang Agriculture and Food Import/Export Company.

Other Vietnamese businesses cited in the indictment are Mekongfish Company (Mekongfish) and Can Tho Animal Fishery Products Processing Export Enterprise (Cafatex) in Can Tho City, and Duyen Hai Foodstuffs Processing Factory (Coseafex) in Tra Vinh Province.

If convicted, Nguyen faces in excess of 20 years imprisonment and fines exceeding US$1 million.

The companies could be fine up to US$500,000 and would be liable to all duties required of the imported shipment..

Representatives from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Cuu Long River Delta Freshwater Fish Committee and Ministry of Fisheries have met to discuss the case.