Stealing 2,100 Boxes of Medicine in 6 Months: FPT Long Chau’s Employee Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

On May 20, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Duong Thi Huong Quynh (born 1985, residing in District 8) to 15 years in prison for “Theft of assets.”

According to the indictment, on March 29, 2023, Le Vinh Phuc, head of inventory counting, was assigned by FPT Long Chau Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Dược Long Châu) to conduct an inventory count in the company’s main warehouse located at 09 Nguyen Van Tao, Long Thoi Ward, Nha Be District. He discovered a discrepancy between the data on the documents and the actual number of medicines in the warehouse. Upon reviewing the surveillance camera footage, he identified Quynh, a warehouse staff member, removing medicines from the warehouse. He immediately reported the incident to the management of Dược Long Châu.

The company confronted Quynh and conducted an inventory check, during which Quynh admitted to stealing 2,139 boxes of various medicines, including Esomaxcare 40mg, Visarme 2mg, Xarelto 10mg, Xarelto 15mg, and Xarelto 20mg.

As Quynh was unable to compensate for the loss, the company reported the incident to the investigative authorities.

During the investigation, Quynh confessed that she had been employed by Long Chau Company since November 4, 2021, and was tasked with arranging medicines on the shelves in the main warehouse. From mid-October 2022 to March 22, 2023, due to her personal financial needs, she secretly took medicines from the warehouse and sold them for profit.

Initially, Quynh took advantage of moments when no one was around to discreetly place a box of medicine into her pants pocket, along with her phone, to avoid detection during security checks when leaving the warehouse area.

Subsequently, she would go to the personal belongings shelf, take a black nylon bag containing a roll of toilet paper, and head to the female restroom. There, she would place the medicine box into the bag for concealment before returning to put it into her backpack. She would then continue with her work in the warehouse. Quynh repeated this process approximately 4 to 5 times.

Confident that her theft was going unnoticed, Quynh started taking larger quantities of medicine each time. At the end of her shift, she would ride her motorbike to various pharmacies to sell the stolen medicines at a lower price.

After selling the medicines and receiving cash, she would either top up her mobile account at service points or ask colleagues to transfer money to her Momo e-wallet or bank account, which she used to repay debts and for personal expenses.

Upon examining Quynh’s bank account and Momo e-wallet transaction history from October 14, 2022, to March 31, 2023, the authorities determined that she had deposited more than VND 626.8 million into these accounts.

Additionally, from October 14, 2022, to March 31, 2023, Quynh admitted to spending approximately VND 40 million in cash for personal expenses. In total, she profited more than VND 666.8 million from the sale of 2,139 boxes of various medicines, which she used to repay debts and fund her personal expenditures.

The indictment concluded that Quynh had secretly stolen and sold 2,139 boxes of various medicines belonging to Long Chau Company, with a total value of over VND 1.4 billion.