Vietnam: legit Gucci passing as bogus for profit?
A young couple poses for their wedding photos outside a Gucci store in Hanoi on December 6, 2012.
Try to wrap your head around this convoluted luxury goods scam, uncovered by Vietnam's Thanh Nien news outlet.
Unlike their bootlegging competitiors, a Gucci shop in Ho Chi Minh City intended on selling real-deal handbags.
But police suspect that, because they didn't want to pay full import fees for their high-end, Italian-made goods, they had their shipments routed through Hong Kong and passed off as Chinese fakes worth less than $7.
The alleged scheme, Thanh Nien reports, has led to the suspension of three customs agents accused of colluding with the Gucci store's owners.
The takeaway: importing bogus brand-name goods into Vietnam through legal channels? No problem.
Just don't try to pass off your genuine luxury goods as cheap knock-offs.
Just another case of corruption from Vietnam which, according to a Transparency Internationl report released last week, is experiencing a spike in graft.