Expected inspection of 5 businesses trading gold, silver, diamonds, and gemstones

Talk to VnExpress, Mr. Tran Viet Hung, Head of the Market Management Operations Department (Department of Domestic Market Management and Development – Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the plan for thematic inspection of businesses trading in precious metals and gemstones was issued on July 15 at the request of the Department of Anti-Money Laundering (State Bank).

Enterprises trading in precious metals and gemstones are understood as units operating in the field of gold jewelry, diamonds and gemstones, including buying, selling, manufacturing, processing and distributing these products.

Mr. Hung said, at the request of the Department of Anti-Money Laundering, market management forces must inspect at least 3 businesses trading in precious metals and gemstones. On that basis, the Department of Domestic Market Management and Development developed a plan and expected to inspect 5 businesses in Hanoi City in August.

“This is a thematic inspection, not an unexpected inspection of businesses with signs of violation,” Mr. Hung said.

The decision to issue the thematic inspection plan will be sent to the enterprise so that they can prepare documents in advance when the inspection team comes to work.

The inspection content focuses on compliance with regulations on invoices, documents, origin of goods, labels… For gold jewelry with gemstones, the inspection team will review the overall product to evaluate and handle according to authority.

The gold jewelry, gemstone and diamond markets have recently attracted attention after the police repeatedly investigated cases related to diamond smuggling. Many stores temporarily stopped operations or limited diamond purchases.

Recently, Thanh Hoa Provincial Police prosecuted 4 more defendants in the case of transnational diamond smuggling at Saigon Jewelry (SJC). The investigation agency also confiscated an additional 354 diamonds of all kinds, worth nearly 69 billion VND. According to investigation results, in the period 2022-2024, the subjects smuggled about 3,400 diamonds from Hong Kong (China), worth more than 500 billion VND. These diamonds were allegedly legalized by purchasing records from customers, then passed through SJC’s inspection unit before being warehoused and distributed into the retail system. The case is still being further investigated by the investigation agency.