SHANGHAI: A local company’s former general manager who evaded more than 18.6 million yuan tariff by using forged receipts to declare imported goods to customs with lower prices was sentenced to 10 years for smuggling, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court said yesterday.
Since the company is registered in Shanghai’s pilot free trade zone, it’s the first smuggling case related to the FTZ heard by the court. The man’s company was ordered to pay a fine of 18.7 million yuan and his two accomplices who forged documents for him were both given a 3-year jail term with a 3-year reprieve.
According to the court, the man Wang Guoming, former general manager and investor of Taige Industrial Co, asked his subordinates to forge documents like receipts and contracts for him to declare imported items, including leather auxiliary and machine parts, to customs at lower prices to evade tariff starting February 2007.
Though Wang resigned and transferred his shares to others in April 2011, he still served as the company’s behind-the-scenes boss. He kept asking the company to use this methods on tariff evasion in the following two years.
One of his accomplices Cao Xiang forged documents for him between January 2008 and March 2010. Later Cao taught another accomplice Liu Sen the way to make fake documents.
On April 1, 2013, Cao and Liu confessed to their smuggling when they were probed by police and Wang was captured later on the same day. Taige returned some 9 million yuan tariff to customs after that.
The court found the amount of tariff Taige and Wang evaded on 728 batches of goods reached over 18.6 million yuan. Cao got involved in the evasion of over 6.7 million yuan tariff and Liu participated in the evasion of over 7.4 million yuan tariff.
Cao and Liu got a lenient penalty since they surrendered themselves to police.
By the end of last month (Mar 31), the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court has accepted 765 cases related to the FTZ and 57 of them were with a foreign party or a party in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan involved.
