COVID-19 preventive suits passed off as from Phúc Hà Medical Equipment and Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội’s People’s Procuracy has approved launching legal proceedings against a man for allegedly selling thousands of counterfeit COVID-19 preventive suits.

Hoàng Văn Tới, 33, from Hà Nội’s Thường Tín District, will be prosecuted for “trading counterfeit products” according to Article 192 of the 2015 Penal Code.

He will be put under temporary detention for four months pending further investigation.

Tới is the fourth defendant to be prosecuted as part of a large case of illegal production and trading of medical equipment for COVID-19 prevention at the Đức Anh Medical Trading and Services Ltd.Co in Đống Đa District.

Earlier, Hà Nội’s Police’s Investigation Agency decided to prosecute Trương Thị Bình, the company’s deputy director, La Văn Thi, the company’s business director and Nguyễn Đức Việt Anh, a worker at the company, on charges of “manufacturing and trading of counterfeit products” according to the Penal Code’s Article 192.

According to initial investigation results, Tới met Bình in late 2019 when Tới visited Bình’s store to buy a blood pressure monitor. In late January 2020, Bình told Tới to find sources of COVID-19 preventive suits for sale and Tới agreed to buy the suits to resell to Bình. Tới then bought 4,000 COVID-19 preventive suits online without clear origin from an unknown source and resold them to Bình. In February, Tới ordered an additional 3,000 suits to sell to Bình. In late February, Bình told Tới that she needed to buy preventive suits from Phúc Hà Medical Equipment and Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company to sell to customers. Tới then bought and resold to Bình 5,000 preventive suits without clear origin and a packet of labels named Phúc Hà Company.
Bình admitted to the police that she knew that the 5,000 medical suits bought by Tới were of unclear origin and still directed her employees to pack and label the products as from Phúc Hà Company.
The case is under further investigation. — VNS