At the heart of Vietnam’s export fraud crisis lies a sprawling network of 1,200+ “ghost factories” – Chinese-operated facilities using Vietnamese shell companies to relabel goods, according to a new Panjiva investigation.
Modus Operandi
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Chinese components shipped to Vietnam for “final assembly” (often just repackaging)
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Fictitious Vietnamese addresses for tariff avoidance
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Bribed certification officials ($3M in bribes uncovered in 2024)
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Sophisticated money laundering through Cambodian banks
Major Product Categories Affected
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Solar panels (83% of suspect shipments)
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Wooden furniture (67% fraud rate per USITC)
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Seafood (41% mislabeled origin)
The Vietnamese government’s new blockchain certification system aims to expose these operations by requiring:
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Live factory floor videos
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Real-time material tracking
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Digital worker registries
