Timber smuggling from Cambodia to Vietnam 'aided by complicit officials and military personnel': Report

[geovalin]

Vietnamese companies are violating a Cambodian ban on timber exports on a massive scale with help from complicit government officials and military personnel, according to a new investigative report.

 

In just three months from December 2016 to February, at least 300,000 cu m of timber was stolen or smuggled out of Cambodia into Vietnam, said a report by the Britain- and US-based non-profit organisation Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released on Monday (May 8). That is enough timber to fill more than 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools by volume.

 

The wood, however, is laundered through a quota system in Vietnam, giving it lawful status in the country and even making them taxable. The trade itself is worth at least US$75 million (S$105 million).

 

read more http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/timber-smuggling-from-cambodia-to-vietnam-aided-by-complicit-officials-and-military

 

[elgordo38]

Shiver me timbers wood piracy. 

[Fulwell53]

75 m pa...pfft!

Cameron's father makes that in interest on funds secreted in Cayman island accounts where he has avoided paying tax like ordinary citizens for decades.