SJC employee takes 30 taels of gold to swap for lower-priced gold

Knowing SJC purchased damaged gold bars at a high price, Nguyen Quoc Viet took 30 taels from the warehouse, intending to replace them with cheaper raw gold to profit from the difference.

On 25/9/2025, Nguyen Quoc Viet, 39, a former employee of the wholesale jewelry business department at Saigon Jewelry Company Limited (SJC), and Thai Xuan Binh, 50, who previously worked for SJC, were both sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court for embezzlement.

According to the indictment, during his employment at SJC, Viet learned that the company purchased damaged SJC gold bars at a higher price than 9999 raw gold. SJC also maintained a policy of processing this gold into 9999 rings, managing it by purity and weight.

Consequently, Viet discussed with Binh, who had left SJC in 2019, a plan to take damaged gold bars from the warehouse, sell them, then purchase cheaper 9999 raw gold from the open market for replacement, thereby profiting from the price difference.

On 6/5/2025, Viet took 30 taels of damaged SJC gold bars, valued at over 3,6 billion dong, from the warehouse he managed and gave them to Binh to sell at SJC's headquarters.

Due to other commitments, Binh asked his wife to carry out the task. The next day, when the woman brought the 30 taels of gold to SJC for sale, the company suspected the gold's origin and reported it to the police.

Claim of taking an additional 44 taels of gold

During the investigation, Viet and Binh admitted their actions, stating they had successfully carried out similar schemes twice before.

According to their testimony, on 25/4/2025 and 5/5/2025, they had taken a total of 44 taels of SJC gold bars, illegally profiting over 405 million dong.

However, through warehouse checks and cross-referencing between departments, SJC determined that the corresponding gold had been released, processed into finished gold rings, and met quality standards.

The company confirmed that as of 7/5/2025, only 30 taels of damaged SJC gold bars were missing. Therefore, investigators concluded there was insufficient evidence to confirm Viet and Binh had embezzled an additional 44 taels of gold as they claimed.