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Customs officers carried out an operation code-named "Operation Recall" on August 9 against a company in Cheung Sha Wan suspected of involvement in revenue fraud activities relating to the importation of wine from Europe.
The company was suspected of under-declaring wine prices in permit applications to Customs by using forged documents. Initial investigations showed that the total duty evaded in the last 12 months was about $1 million.
Five male and three female suspects aged between 23 and 50 -three directors, two purchasing clerks, two shipping clerks and one accounts clerk of the company - were arrested and released on bail pending further investigation.
About four months ago, when vetting permit applications, Customs officers suspected that a liquor importer had under-declared liquor value.
A specialised fraud investigation team in Customs - the Revenue Fraud Investigation Team – targeted two consignments of liquor imported from France and the UK in an operation on August 7. The consignments involved 739 bottles of high-value wine imported by the company concerned.
At 11.30am on August 9, officers from the Revenue Fraud Investigation Team, Revenue and General Investigation Bureau, and Computer Forensic Laboratory executed two search warrants to enter the office and the warehouse of the company in Cheung Sha Wan for a premises search.
Customs officers seized a large amount of documents, involving suspected forged invoices with a lower price together with documents with the real price, related remittance and payment records.
Customs Computer Forensic Experts seized 18 computers and a server in the company suspected of containing evidence of forgery for computer forensic examination.
Meanwhile, the 739 bottles of wine imported from France and the UK were seized at Hong kong International Airport on suspicion of under-declaration of wine price. The total value of the wine was about $2.3 million. The estimated duty evaded amounted to $300,000.
The Senior Staff Officer of Office of Dutiable Commodities Administration, Mr Albert Ho, today (August 13) sai Hong Kong Customs had a robust valuation mechanism for guarding against under-declaration of liquor price.
The Revenue Fraud Investigation Team will investigate and initiate prosecution upon discovery of suspected revenue fraud cases.
In the past three years, Customs successfully recovered $7 million of duty from liquor importers for under-declaration of price.
Mr Ho said wine revenue fraud cases in the past three years mainly involved unintentional omission of cost items required for declaration.
Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, evading duty on dutiable commodities is a serious offence and the maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.
For cases of intentional evasion of duty, a magistrate may additionally impose a fine not exceeding 10 times the amount of duty payable on the dutiable goods.
Traders and the public can report any suspected revenue fraud cases to the Customs 24-hour hotline on 2545 6182.
Ends/Monday, August 13, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:02
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