Founded by Châu in 1995, Bảo Tín Minh Châu is one of the major gold brands in Hà Nội. — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Investigation Police Agency of Hà Nội Police on Monday launched legal proceedings against Vũ Minh Châu, founder and majority owner of Hà Nội-based gold trading company Bảo Tín Minh Châu on charges of violating accounting regulations, causing serious consequences.

Besides Châu, his son Vũ Minh Tú - head of the independent assistant board, and two accounting staff of the company were also subject to legal proceedings for the violation.

According to the police, before 2024, Châu and Tú instructed the company’s accounting department to use the Hivi Gold and Hivi Gold Pro software and Excel to monitor actual business operations, while using the Misa accounting software for tax reporting.

Since the second half of 2024, to avoid inspection by authorities, Châu directed Tú and staff to delete all data on Hivi Gold and Hivi Gold Pro, and switch to using Excel combined with the Fox AI sales software.

According to data extracted from the Hivi software in the 2020-23 period, investigators initially determined that the company’s actual revenue was about VNĐ13.7 trillion (US$520.19 million), a difference of about VNĐ9.7 trillion against tax reporting, causing a loss of about VNĐ150 billion to the State budget.

Founded by Châu in 1995, Bảo Tín Minh Châu is one of the major gold brands in Hà Nội. Currently, the brand has four business locations in Hà Nội and over 200 dealers nationwide.

According to a report on the National Business Registration Portal, the company has a charter capital of VNĐ400 billion as of January 26 this year, of which Châu holds over 97 per cent of the shares. — BIZHUB/VNS