Dozens of "ghost" companies were set up to illegally buy and sell value-added invoices.

After a period of monitoring and investigation, recently under the direction of the Director and Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency, Trieu Son District Police arrested 5 subjects in a ring that established dozens of "ghost" companies to illegally buy and sell value-added tax invoices, illegally earning nearly 3 billion VND.

Dozens of

The subjects in the VAT invoice trading ring were arrested by Trieu Son District Police.

The five arrested subjects include: Nguyen Dung Huyen, born in 1990, in Tay Bac Ga Industrial Park, Dong Tho Ward; Le Thi Hoa, born in 1967, in Lam Son Ward; Dang Nguyet Minh, born in 1982, in Dong Son Ward; Nguyen Thi Nhung, born in 1989 and Nguyen Thi Lien, born in 1982, both in Phu Son Ward, Thanh Hoa City.

Searching the suspects' residences, Trieu Son District Police seized: 16 USB tokens with digital signatures of 16 companies; 3 seals of 3 companies; 4 stamps with the names of directors, 1 laptop, 1 mobile phone, many "fake" economic contracts and a number of other documents related to the illegal sale of invoices.

Previously, through the investigation, Trieu Son District Police discovered that Hai Phong Construction, Trade and Transportation Company Limited (Hai Phong Company) had registered to operate since March 30, 2022, located at Residential Group 4, Trieu Son Town, Trieu Son District, established by Nguyen Thi Huong, born in 1989 in Dong Minh Commune, Dong Son District.

However, through verification, Hai Phong Company did not have any business activities and showed signs of illegally buying and selling invoices with a number of subjects in Thanh Hoa city to make illegal profits.

Identifying this as a dangerous criminal gang, greatly affecting the budget collection of the province as well as Trieu Son district, the leaders of Trieu Son district police reported to the Director and Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency to establish a special project to combat and eradicate it.

During the investigation and verification of Hai Phong Company's activities, Trieu Son District Police determined that since its establishment (March 2022), the Company has had no actual business activities, no warehouses, yards, production facilities, or workers to serve its business. The subjects themselves: Dang Nguyet Minh, Nguyen Thi Nhung, and Nguyen Thi Lien have been running the company and trying to sell invoices to "ghost" companies and businesses in and outside the province that need to buy invoices to declare tax reports, issue VAT invoices without accompanying goods and services at prices ranging from 2-8% of the value of goods and services listed on the invoice.

The initial investigation determined that from March 2022 until being discovered and arrested, the subjects operating Hai Phong Company purchased fake input invoices (without accompanying goods) in very large quantities from many different companies in the province. After that, this company issued a total of 580 fake invoices with a total transaction amount of about 30 billion VND to many businesses and administrative units inside and outside the province.

In addition, Dang Nguyet Minh, Nguyen Thi Nhung and Nguyen Thi Lien also declared that from the beginning of 2022 until their arrest, the subjects had set up 4 fake companies and directly worked as tax accountants for 12 companies with actual business activities with the purpose of buying and selling invoices between companies, legalizing invoices and documents to reduce the amount of VAT and corporate income tax payable to illegally profit a large amount of money.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Hieu, Deputy Chief of Trieu Son District Police, said: During the investigation, Trieu Son District Police determined that this was a group of subjects who took advantage of accounting jobs for companies and established many "ghost" companies to buy and sell invoices in large quantities, occurring in many districts, towns, and cities inside and outside the province. The subjects often established tax accounting groups for businesses, then established additional "ghost" companies with no business activities to contact companies with business activities to self-adjust, issue invoices back and forth between many companies, balance and then issue invoices themselves to purchasing units in need.

The cause of this incident is partly due to the regulations on business registration, tax declaration, invoice management, tax administration, business inspection, banking transactions... which still have some loose and inadequate points, which this group of subjects took advantage of to commit illegal acts.

The Investigation Police Agency of Trieu Son District Police has sent a document requesting relevant agencies to correct shortcomings.

Thai Thanh

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