OT Nok is down hard this am. Only story on Nok that I can find is this.
Head of mobile phone distributor arrested for suspected tax evasion< ap_topic:Business;
HANOI, Vietnam, Jan 08, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Police in southern Ho Chi Minh City arrested the director of Vietnam's chief distributor of Nokia and Samsung mobile phones for suspected tax evasion, state-controlled media reported Wednesday.
Nguyen Gia Thieu, 38, director of Dong Nam Company Ltd., was taken into police custody Tuesday while Ngo Van Toan, the company's chief accountant and his predecessor, Nguyen Thanh Tung, were placed under house arrest, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported.
Last Thursday, police raided six stores as well as the homes of Thieu and Toan, confiscating more than 6,000 mobile phones, 30 computers and documents related to the company's alleged tax evasion.
Police investigations showed the company had declared the price of its imported mobile phones lower than value to evade estimated annual taxes of US$5.2 million, it said.
Dong Nam Company Ltd., set up 10 years ago, is an affiliate of Dong Nam Associates, which was registered in Hong Kong and run by Thieu's brother Nguyen Trong Thang.
The brothers are French citizens of Vietnamese origin.
The company began in computers and later became the main distributor for Finland's Nokia and recently South Korea's Samsung mobile phones.
The Samsung phones were distributed through Tam Nguyen Company Ltd. run by Thieu's fiance, Ha Kieu Anh, a former Miss Vietnam.
Anh, Thang and his wife are banned from leaving the country, the paper reported.
Nokia controls 50 percent of Vietnam's mobile phone market, while Samsung has another 30 percent, it said.
Vietnam, with a population of 80 million, currently has 1.6 million mobile phone subscribers.
