From: Lincoln Journal Star
By LORI PILGER
At the end of a weeklong trial, a federal jury continued to deliberate the case of a man and woman accused of being part of a Vietnamese cigarette smuggling ring in Lincoln and Nebraska City.
Jurors got the case at about noon Monday and went home Tuesday without reaching a verdict.
Together, Nhu Van Phan and Tang “Janny” Nguyen, both of Lincoln, face nine charges, including smuggling goods into the United States, tax evasion, mail fraud and conspiracy.
In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Mickle told jurors the question wasn’t whether cigarettes had been smuggled or taxes evaded or if they had used the U.S. Postal Service to do it.
“The only issue is whether these two defendants did what they did with intent to defraud,” he said.
Mickle said Van Phan and Nguyen were couriers who received packages of cigarettes in the mail from Vietnam and took them to others.
In Nguyen’s case, Mickle said, she took them to her sister, Kim Nguyen, whose trailer was two doors down.
Van Phan, she said, took them to Teo Van Phan, an unrelated family friend he met while working at a meat packing plant in Nebraska City.
Mickle pointed to dozens of delivery boxes with their names and addresses.
“These defendants had their eyes wide open, and they intended to do what they did,” he said.
But Nhu Van Phan’s attorney, Stu Dornan, said it’s not illegal to do what the 69-year-old did if he didn’t know it was against the law. And, he said, the government hadn’t proved he knew.
Dornan said he was just doing a favor for a family friend who asked if he could have the cigarettes sent to his Lincoln address. And, he pointed to the fact that while Teo Van Phan made a $10 to $15 a box profit, Nhu Van Phan didn’t make anything.
In the end, he faulted the government for assuming Nhu Van Phan was involved and pursuing a case against him, saying it wasn’t like he was part of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy or a murderous terrorist being held at Guantanamo Bay.
“They should be embarrassed for bringing this case,” Dornan said, “over $15,000 worth of untaxed cigarettes.”
Chad Primmer, Tang Nguyen’s attorney, said the woman in her “twilight years” worked long hours in Omaha six days a week and got duped by her sister, who told her she was going to get packages in the mail, but didn’t say what was inside.
When she learned what was in the packages, she yelled and told her sister to stop, he said.
Primmer said it was Kim Nguyen who had come up with the scheme, along with their brother and nephew in Vietnam.
“(Tang Nguyen) didn’t get a nickel or a dime or a favor out of it,” he said.
Primmer told jurors they should find her and Nhu Van Phan not guilty nine times over.
Mickle got the last word, saying the offenses may not be as serious as bank robbery, but at some point they realized that what others were doing was wrong.
“They knew what was going on, and they did it anyway,” he said.
The jury of 11 women and one man were to resume their work Wednesday morning.
