Indictment of Female Director for Producing and Trading Tens of Thousands of Boxes of Counterfeit Health Supplements

On June 3, the Police of Thanh Hoa province informed that the Provincial Police Investigation Agency (Economic Police Department) had initiated a lawsuit and prosecuted the case on June 3 against Hoang Thi Ngoc (born 1988, residing in Bo De ward, Long Bien district, Hanoi), Director of Nam Hoa Ethnic Medicine Production and Trading Limited Company, for “Production and trading of counterfeit food” and banned her from leaving her place of residence.

According to the Economic Police Department of Thanh Hoa province, around 2020, Hoang Thi Ngoc, as the Director of Nam Hoa Ethnic Medicine Production and Trading Limited Company (Nam Hoa Company), advertised and sold traditional Dao ethnic medicines of Mrs. Trieu Thi Hoa (Yen Son commune, Ba Vi district, Hanoi) on the Facebook account named “Trieu Thi Hoa”

After that, Nguyen Thi Hoi (born in 1983, residing in Dak Lak province), Director of Tran Kim Huyen Limited Company (Tran Kim Huyen Company), saw the products and contacted Ngoc to buy them with the purpose of reselling for profit.

Subsequently, the two agreed that Hoi would be responsible for ordering the packaging and labels and then transferring them to Ngoc for final product assembly. Ngoc would then send the products back to Hoi for exclusive distribution in the market.

Following this, Ngoc discussed and received consent from Mrs. Trieu Thi Hoa to exclusively distribute her traditional medicines.

However, since the Dao ethnic traditional medicines are not on the list of oriental medicines, they cannot be tested and announced. Therefore, Ngoc formulated her recipes (as she had studied herbal medicine) from oriental medicinal herbs with therapeutic and health-enhancing effects similar to those of Dao ethnic traditional medicines and listed these ingredients on the packaging.

Once the formulas were ready, Ngoc purchased test result documents from the Hanoi Branch of the TSL Testing Center and the Hi-Tech Testing Center in Nam Dinh province. She then self-declared the products and submitted the dossiers to the Bac Ninh Food Safety Authority to introduce 12 products to the market, including: TKH Herbal Antibiotics, Thanh Huyet Dan, Ngoc Mau Hoang Cung, Vuong Tho Dan, Vuong Duong Huyet Dan, Trinh Nu Hoang Cung, Nam Vuong TKH, Anti Gout TKH, Cao Tri Sam Do (in suppository and ointment forms), TKH Herbal Weight Loss, TKH Herbal Weight Gain, and An Cot Vuong TKH.

In the process, Hoi sold these 12 products to Nguyen Thi Hang (born in 1980, residing in Long Bien district, Hanoi), a distributor of Tran Kim Huyen Company (directed by Hoi). Hang then resold them to many customers, including Pham Thi Toan (from Bai Tranh commune, Nhu Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province).

During the urgent house search, Hoi, Hang, and Toan voluntarily handed over a large quantity of the products to the investigation agency, with more than 36,000 boxes. In addition, the police also temporarily confiscated some other products and are continuing to inspect and clarify the case.

Through appraisal and analysis, it was determined that the ingredients forming these products tested “negative”, and no banned substances were found in the products (a “negative” result in herbal medicine testing means that, with the methods used for testing, no characteristic chemical components of the herbal medicine were detected).

Through valuation, the batch of goods is valued at nearly VND 1 billion. The case is being further investigated and clarified by the Thanh Hoa Provincial Police.