News

Contraband cigarettes break 1-billion-pack mark in Vietnam

More than one billion packs of cigarette have been illicitly transported into Vietnam so far this year, the Market Surveillance Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reported. “Cigarette smuggling remains rife in Vietnam,” the market watchdog agency said in a preliminary report to recap its efforts to combat smuggled tobacco. The agency has so far handled 4,712 tobacco smuggling cases, and transferred 21 of these to police for indictment. Officers have also seized eight cars, 432 motorbikes, and seven boats which smugglers used to transport the illicit products.

DOF clears BIR use of tobacco tax stamps to arrest smuggling

The Department of Finance (DOF) has cleared the implementation of tax stamps on cigarettes in a bid to minimize smuggling. In a statement, DOF said it approved the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) revenue regulation seeking to affix tax stamps on both imported and locally-manufactured tobacco products.  “This measure will strengthen our capacity to combat smuggling of tobacco products. We believe in implementing regulations with enough teeth to bite down on smugglers who are intent on depriving the nation of critical resources for greed and private gain,” said BIR chief Kim Jacinto-Henares. BIR will prescribe the Internal Revenue Stamp System (IRSIS) for the ordering, distribution, and monitoring of cigarettes.

OECD Eyes Bitcoin, Tobacco Smuggling As Tax Crime Issues

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is focusing a sharper eye on how digital currencies like bitcoin can be used by money launderers to evade taxes, as well as on the illicit tobacco trade, an organization head said Friday at a tax crime forum.  In remarks at the OECD’s second annual Tax Crime Investigation Forum, Deputy Secretary General William Danvers said the international body is committed to exploring how digital currencies fit within the organization’s existing campaign against international tax fraud, and is also intensifying.

http://www.law360.com/whitecollar/articles/577220/oecd-eyes-bitcoin-tobacco-smuggling-as-tax-crime-issues

Men charged over organised crime

The pair, aged 31 and 32, are accused of blackmail and belonging to or professing to belong to a proscribed organisation.They are expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Following the charges, police said they have conducted 120 searches, arrested 38 people and charged four as part of their operation against organised crime in south and east Belfast.Twenty individuals have also been reported to the Public Prosecution Service.Officers have seized over £50,000 and counterfeit goods with an estimated street value of £23,000.Since the start of April 2014, there have been 231 drug seizures, 188 people have been arrested in relation to drug offences and 87 of these individuals have been charged.

Pair in court over counterfeit car goods

Standing side by side in the dock at Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday, Stephen Anderson, 47, and his wife Elizabeth Helen Anderson, 44, both from Galgorm Hall, were each charged with 10 offences including six counts of possessing items which bore a sign identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, registered trademarks.They are alleged to include BMW Mini cuff-links; BMW tyre valve dust caps and keyrings; Mini Cooper works keyrings; and car badges.

The pair are further charged with selling goods with signs identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, a registered trademark to the value in excess of £700k along with allegations of concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property, namely proceeds from counterfeit vehicle merchandise, and with defrauding the Public Revenue by failing to deliver a tax return.

Corrections officer pleads guilty to smuggling pot, tobacco into prison

A corrections officer at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex pleaded guilty to smuggling tobacco and marijuana into the prison, a U.S. attorney’s spokesman said. Jason Epstein, 29, of Orlando, had prisoners ask people outside Coleman to wire him money under pseudonyms, said William Daniels, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III.

Court records show the smuggling began in April of 2012, and lasted until inmates told agents about it in 2014. Epstein was arrested in June and charged with receiving a bribe. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled, but he faces up to 15 years in prison, Daniels said in a statement.

Illicit cigarette study is blowing smoke, says council on smoking and health

One out of three cigarettes smoked in Hong Kong last year was illicit, costing the government more than HK$3.2 billion in lost tax revenue, a study by two overseas think tanks says.  But the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) says the results are “dubious”.  The Illicit Tobacco Indicator study – conducted by UK-based Oxford Economics and the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) in the US – suggests that the city’s illicit cigarette consumption rate stood as high as 33.6 per cent of 1.8 billion cigarettes smoked in 2013, causing a loss of HK$3.2 billion in taxes. Of the 14 countries studied, Hong Kong had the third highest consumption rate, after Brunei and Malaysia, which ranked first and second, respectively.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1588896/illicit-cigarette-study-blowing-smoke-says-council-smoking-and-health