Prosecution of 'sand bandits' who bought fake invoices, earning more than 5 billion VND

The above subjects are related to the activities of exploitation, trading,illegal sand transportationon Lam River in Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces.

Previously, through reconnaissance work to grasp the area, the Department of Guidance on Patrolling, Controlling and Combating Crime on Inland Waterways (Traffic Police Department) discovered a network of illegal sand exploitation, trading, and transportation on the Lam River.

This is a very large, tightly organized, sophisticated network. The subject set up many satellite companies to illegally exploit and consume sand.

After many days of monitoring and collecting evidence of crimes, on March 23, the Department of Patrol Guidance, Control and Crime Prevention and Control on Inland Waterways coordinated with the Traffic Police Department and the Economic Police Department of Ha Tinh Provincial Police to arrest vehicles that were exploiting, transporting and pumping sand at 3 locations including: the sand mining area of ​​Asia Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company (Lam River route, Quang Vinh Commune, Duc Tho District, Ha Tinh); the sand gathering area of ​​Asia Mine (Xuan Lam Commune, Nghi Xuan District, Ha Tinh) and the sand pumping gathering point for construction at a project in Vinh City (Nghe An).

As a result, a total of 5 vehicles with sand suction equipment were checked and arrested (2 of which were suctioning sand at the Asia mine in Quang Vinh commune; 2 of which were pumping sand to a construction project; 1 of which was traveling on the route) along with 11 related subjects and 12 crew members on the vehicles.

The authorities clarified that in 2024, 68 Quang Binh Consulting and Construction Company Limited (Bo Trach district, Quang Binh) and Quang Ninh Construction Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company JSC (Quang Yen town, Quang Ninh) were the contractors who signed contracts to construct ground leveling items at a project in Vinh city.

To have the volume of sand for construction of the above project items, Quang Binh 68 Consulting and Construction Company Limited and Quang Ninh Construction Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company JSC contacted to buy sand from Nguyen Cong Tung Lam (born in 1989). The volume of sand supplied for sale to these contractors was purchased by Nguyen Cong Tung Lam from sand mines in Song Lam area of ​​Nghe An province and Ha Tinh province.

Then, Lam hired ships designed with suction equipment (some ships were seized by the Traffic Police Department) to go to the sand mines of Asia Consulting and Construction Joint Stock Company (Ha Tinh) and Hung Lam Cooperative (Nghe An) which were licensed to exploit, to suck sand, transport it to the pump stations and sell it to construction contractors at a price of 110,000 VND/m.³sand.

Because the volume of sand purchased from Nguyen Cong Tung Lam did not have an invoice, 68 Quang Binh Consulting and Construction Company Limited and Quang Ninh Construction Investment Consulting JSC contacted Nguyen Van Binh to buy fake VAT invoices.

During the period from August 2024 to March 2025, Nguyen Van Binh colluded with Trinh Thi Dung to use the legal entity of An Dai Phat 68 Investment and Development Company Limited (Trinh Thi Dung is Chairwoman of the Board of Directors) to issue and sell 30 fake invoices (without accompanying goods and services), including: 14 VAT invoices for 68 Quang Binh Consulting and Construction Company Limited; 8 VAT invoices for 68 Quang Binh Construction and Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company and 8 VAT invoices for Quang Ninh Construction Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company JSC, illegally profiting a total amount of more than 5 billion VND.

For other related subjects, the Investigation Agency continues to verify and clarify for handling according to the provisions of law.