On May 30, 2025, the State Bank Inspectorate (SBV) announced the Notice of Inspection Conclusion No. 003/TB-TTNH4 on compliance with policies and laws in gold trading activities at Saigon Jewelry Company Limited - SJC (SJC Company).
Violations in gold trading and money laundering prevention and control
According to the conclusion, SJC Company has achieved some successes such as issuing regulations in gold trading activities, buying and selling gold bars under licenses issued by the State Bank, implementing the information and reporting regime on buying and selling gold bars; posting gold purchase and sale prices according to regulations; having a positive expertise in implementing regulations on money laundering prevention and control; making documents, invoices and tax declarations according to regulations of law.
However, SJC Company was also discovered to have many violations and shortcomings. Regarding compliance with legal policies in gold trading activities, SJC Company violated the reporting regime on buying and selling gold bars; showing signs of excess information, causing confusion about products and goods provided by enterprises to attract customers of other enterprises, related to unfair competition.
In particular, although there is no basis to determine the price increase in the period from October 2, 2023 to April 15, 2024 is unreasonable. However, at SJC Company, the purchase price, gold price is decided by the General Director of SJC Company and directs the purchase price, the price of gold when there is no regulations, internal processes on the targets and bases in the mechanism of determining the purchase price, gold price, not separating the responsibilities of the relevant departments during the advisory process to determine the price.
Thus, the decision on gold purchase and sale prices is decided by 01 individual, the General Director, when there are no specific targets and bases, leading to risks in determining prices affecting the operations of SJC Company as well as the gold market because SJC Company accounts for a relatively large market share.
Regarding money laundering prevention and control, SJC Company violated a number of legal regulations such as issuing incomplete internal regulations; not having a risk management system to determine customers/outside individuals with political influence; not reporting transactions with high value that must be reported; not conducting internal control, training, and fostering on money laundering prevention and control; not evaluating and updating the results of money laundering risk assessment; not specifically regulating factors to determine customer information and decentralizing responsibility to recognize customers.
In addition, in terms of accounting, making and using invoices, vouchers, declaring and fulfilling tax obligations, SJC Company violates the preparation or replacement and issuing a number of sales invoices but no codes of tax authorities; Accounting for residues of anti -inventory discounts into semiconductor costs leading to lack of income tax payable, reducing the company's payable income tax; Do not fully record information or information that is incorrect about the ID/CCCD number of some customers on the list 01/TNDN.
Penalties and requirements for remediation of violations
The State Bank of Vietnam has transferred information on violations of the regime of invoices, accounting documents, and taxes with criminal law violation titles to the Ministry of Public Security for verification, investigation, and handling. The Chief Inspector of the State Bank also issued a Decision to administratively sanction SJC Company with a total fine of VND 2.14 billion for the violations.
The SBV requires SJC Company to immediately stop violations, strictly comply with legal regulations on gold trading, money laundering prevention and control, accounting regimes, and taxes; at the same time, issue regulations to determine daily gold purchase and sale prices to ensure compliance with reality and legal regulations.
