This is a case worthy of all international freight forwarders to be vigilant, because it is a "next door freight forwarder Liu" like you, and this freight forwarder involved in these businesses, many freight forwarders should be familiar!
According to the latest information from One Shipping, Jiangsu Hongbin Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hongbin Company"), a well-known enterprise known as the "king of nuts" and once became the largest supplier of three squirrels, recently exposed a major smuggling case. And a freight forwarding enterprise responsible for the company's freight forwarding and customs declaration business is also involved!
This freight forwarder is: Lianyungang Hanwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hanwu Company")!
public information from the enterprise investigation shows that this company named Lianyungang Hanwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. was established in 2009. After years of development, the company's legal person Ms. Liu has successively established a number of enterprises involving warehousing, logistics and international trade. The information disclosed by the court also showed that the freight forwarder had an identity that was the envy of his peers, that is, a member of the CPPCC of Lianyungang District, Lianyungang City.
From the basic situation of the enterprise, we can see that no matter from the size of this freight forwarder or the boss's social reputation, this is an excellent international freight forwarder.
So, why is such a freight forwarding company involved in a major smuggling case, the freight forwarding boss will face jail?
Self-destructing Major Customers: "Nut King" Jiangsu Hongbin Food
According to the data, one of the major customers of Lianyungang Hanwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. is Jiangsu Hongbin Food Co., Ltd., which was a company with an annual supply of nearly 0.4 billion yuan and was listed on the list of three squirrels (300783.SZ). A well-known import and export enterprise.
However, this well-known enterprise with annual revenue of 1 billion RMB and has been legally operating before, has destroyed its future and embarked on the road of smuggling!
According to the enterprise investigation data, Jiangsu Hongbin Food Co., Ltd. was established on July 5, 2017, registered in Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, with a registered capital of 20 million yuan. Its main business is food production and sales; self-management and agent All kinds of goods and technology import and export business.
According to insiders, Jiangsu Hongbin Food Co., Ltd. had annual sales of more than 1 billion yuan at its peak. However, in the second year of the company's establishment, that is, 2018, the import and export of nut industry has undergone major changes.
Data show that from March 2018 to September 2019, due to Sino-US trade frictions led to three rounds of tariff increases, the scope of commodities also continued to expand, nut raw materials total imposed 50% tariffs!
house leakage is a night of rain, in 202020the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, import and export trade, domestic production and consumption activities are gradually affected. On February 17 of the same year, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council issued a policy to reduce the import tax of enterprises.
According to the announcement, we will carry out the work of eliminating the market-oriented procurement of tariff-levied goods in the United States and Canada. According to the application of relevant enterprises in China, we will no longer impose counter-tariffs on imported goods purchased from the United States in accordance with the principles of marketization and commercialization within a certain period of time (that is, the three rounds of tariff increases mentioned above). After the enterprise applies, if the examination is approved, within one year from the date of approval, the import of goods within the approved amount will not be subject to additional tariffs, but the tariffs and taxes that have been imposed before approval will not be refunded.
However, after the policy was introduced, Hongbin Company, whose capital flow became more and more tight, did not apply, but began smuggling.
Freight forwarders are involved in major smuggling cases, active or passive?
According to the Huaxia Times, since the 2018 nut raw material tariffs increased, Hongbin has tried two "processing trade mode sales" legal scheme.
One of the is to import nut raw materials from the United States to the domestic bonded area, apply for the bonded area through the processing trade mode, transport it to the factory outside the bonded area for processing, and then transport the processed clinker back to the bonded area. In this way, the origin of the clinker becomes China, and then it is sold from the bonded area to the domestic market.
The other of is to set up processing plants directly in the bonded area to process the raw materials into mature materials and then sell them out of the area. In this way, the origin of clinker has also become China. For this reason, Hongbin Company specially set up Dongda Company to implement this operation, while Dongda Company's freight forwarding, customs declaration and other matters are handled by Lianyungang Hanwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., which has been serving Hongbin Company, and its two affiliated entities.
However, because the cost of these two legal schemes is not a small number, Hongbin Company and Dongda Company chose to declare raw materials disguised as mature materials out of the area (smuggling).
Since December 2018, Hongbin Company and Dongda Company have smuggled more than 200 containers of imported nut raw materials, with a case value of about 1.219 billion yuan, a tax related to about 0.639 billion yuan, and tax evasion exceeding 70 million yuan.
On October 12, 2022, the court of first instance found that from February 20, 2020to July 13, 2020, Hongbin Company and Dongda Company knew that U.S. nut raw materials imported by general trade methods needed to impose additional tariffs. The tariffs were higher than those of finished nuts (nut clinker) produced in the import and export processing zone. They still used methods such as changing packaging, pasting false finished product labels, and using props and fruits (nuts packaged in finished products) to evade customs supervision, raw nuts originating in the United States are falsely reported as finished nuts smuggled into the country from the comprehensive bonded area and transported to Hongbin Company for processing or directly sold in China.
On July 29, 2020, Nanjing Customs Anti-smuggling Bureau organized police forces to carry out a centralized crackdown. Hongbin Company and Dongda Company's actual controller Lin Moujie, Hongbin Company's general manager Huang Moujun, and Hanwu Company's actual controller, Huamancang Company's actual manager Liu Mouling and many others were arrested.
It is worth mentioning that Liu Mouling is not only the actual controller of the Hanwu Freight Forwarding Company, she is also a member of the Lianyungang Lianyungang CPPCC, but on October 15, 2020, Liu Mouling was suspended from membership rights.
It is reported that the case of the first instance judgment has nearly 80 pages, recording a number of defendants and a large number of witnesses of the confession and testimony.
On October 12, 2022, the court of first instance found after a public hearing that Hongbin Company and Dongda Company, together with Hanwu Company, evaded customs supervision and smuggled ordinary goods into the country through false reporting. The circumstances were particularly serious. The act constituted the crime of smuggling ordinary goods and was a unit crime. Among them, Hongbin Company and Dongda Company were the principal offenders and Lianyungang Hanwu International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. was an accessory; hongbin Company and Dongda Company smuggled more than 200 containers (containers) of nuts, totaling more than 5000 tons, and evaded taxes exceeding 70 million yuan.
in terms of punishment and sentencing, Hongbin Company was convicted of smuggling ordinary goods and sentenced to a fine of 35 million yuan, Dongda Company was convicted of smuggling ordinary goods and sentenced to a fine of 28 million yuan, and the illegal gains of Hongbin Company and Dongda Company were recovered; Lin was convicted of smuggling ordinary goods and sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison, and Huang was convicted of smuggling ordinary goods and sentenced to 11 years in prison, liu Mouling was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the crime of smuggling ordinary goods, and Zhang and other three people were sentenced to probation.
The case is still awaiting second trial.
Source: One Shipping