Five jailed in HCMC for producing fake condoms, lubricants

By Hoang Phong January 12, 2021 | 03:00 am PT

Fake condoms are confiscated in a Saigon house in 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Son Hoa.

A HCMC court Tuesday sentenced five people to between three and eight years in jail for producing hundreds of thousands of fake condoms and lubricants worth VND6.7 billion ($292,220).

Truong Chi Thanh, 30, identified as the ringleader, received a jail term of eight years while his business partner Pham Thanh Truyen, 31, got a seven-year sentence. Both were charged with "manufacturing and/or trading in fake goods," Phap Luat TPHCM (HCMC Laws) reported.

Three other accomplices were sentenced to three years in jail each.

In July 2018, Thanh rented a house in District 12 to store unlabeled Chinese condoms he would later brand and sell as Durex, OK or Sure products.

Thanh, who confessed to all allegations, had expanded his operation by hiring a female partner, paid a monthly salary of VND4 million, in Thu Dau Mot Town of Binh Duong Province.

He then hired two other men for VND5 million a month each to run respective fake condom production facilities in Thu Duc and Go Vap districts.

All culprits were arrested in June 2019 after police raided several locations in HCMC.