Tycoon illegally buys and sells invoices, earns hundreds of billions of dong
Investigation documents show that Nguyen Minh Tu directly and through 73 intermediaries, used 646 companies, to illegally sell 1,025,712 VAT invoices to 88,053 units and organizations with a total turnover of more than 63,762 billion VND.
On December 19, the People's Court of Phu Tho province will open the first instance trial of the case of illegal invoice trading with a "huge" quantity. 100 defendants will be brought to trial for the crimes of: "Illegal invoice trading", "Forgery of seals and documents of agencies and organizations; use of fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations" and "Tax evasion".
Previously, through the work of grasping the situation of enterprises performing tax obligations in Phu Tho province, the Investigation Police Agency of Phu Tho province discovered that Nguyen Thuy Hanh (born in 1980, in Dong Anh, Hanoi), Director of Nam Son Vic Joint Stock Company, had purchased 31 fake value-added tax (VAT) invoices with a total value of goods recorded on the invoices of VND 8.7 billion, and had completed tax declaration procedures at the Phu Tho Provincial Tax Department.
From this clue, the police expanded the case, arresting hundreds of people involved. Among the 100 defendants, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tu (born in 1992, in Ho Chi Minh City) was prosecuted for "Illegal purchase and sale of invoices" and "Forgery of seals and documents of organizations; Use of fake seals and documents of organizations".
Tricks
According to the indictment, from December 2020 to October 2022, the defendant Tu, through Nguyen Thi Hue (born 1988, in Hanoi) and 2 other individuals (identity unknown), bought 646 businesses. This tycoon, through Hue, bought 500 businesses at a cost of 50 - 60 million VND/business, then through social networks Facebook, Zalo and groups on the Internet, he established a network of intermediaries (F1, F2...) to sell VAT invoices to units in need across the country, making illegal profits.
To conceal the illegal sale of invoices, Tu hired Hue to "self-declare" and then "falsely declare" the purchase turnover (in reality there were no input invoices); "Decrease" (declare only a small part) the invoice sales turnover of the invoice-selling companies on the electronic tax declarations during the tax settlement periods of the enterprises.
To legalize the payment procedure “through the bank” for the VAT invoices that were sold, Nguyen Minh Tu and Vo Tan Loc (born in 1997, in Ho Chi Minh City) “bought” 6 financial companies. Tu assigned Loc to manage these financial companies to legalize the payment procedure through the bank for the illegal purchase and sale of VAT invoices.
Tu and Loc used "junk" SIM phone numbers to register for Internet banking applications to transfer money into the personal accounts of intermediaries with an amount equal to the sales of invoices sold.
Then, the intermediaries retain the money from selling invoices according to the agreement with the businesses buying invoices (to divide according to the % rate specified in the system) and transfer the remaining amount to the personal account of the legal representative (or the account of the accountant, relative, etc.) of the units buying invoices.
These individuals deposited the amount received plus the amount required to purchase the invoice as agreed (equivalent to the amount retained by the intermediaries) into the invoice purchasing business account, then transferred the money back to the invoice selling businesses accounts of Tu and his accomplices, considering the payment completed.
To manage and collect invoice sales from intermediaries, Tu tracks invoice sales made by each intermediary (F1) using the "customer code" shown on the electronic invoice data.
For companies directly used by Tu to sell VAT invoices, the defendant collected invoice sales fees from 1% - 1.5% of the sales amount recorded on the invoices that had been legally paid through the bank and the entire invoice amount paid in cash.
As for the companies, Tu assigned the intermediary to collect 0.7% of the sales amount listed on the invoice. This tycoon paid Loc 0.1% of the amount that the Finance companies had legally paid.
Investigation documents show that, with the purpose of selling fake VAT invoices for profit, from December 2020 to October 2022, Nguyen Minh Tu directly and through intermediaries (abbreviated as F1) used 646 companies to sell 1,025,712 invoices to 88,053 units and organizations with a total turnover of more than VND 63,762 billion, illegally profiting more than VND 509 billion.
According to the indictment, by the time Tu was prosecuted and detained, he had only collected more than 294 billion VND. Tu had divided more than 12 billion VND for Loc and paid more than 31 billion VND to Hue.
The accusation is that Tu also forged seals and documents of agencies and organizations and used fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations.
Investigation documents show that Nguyen Minh Tu ordered 32 fake seals from competent authorities (People's Committees of provinces, departments, branches and inspection, testing and notary agencies), then used these seals to create "fake" sets of documents proving the origin of goods recorded on invoices, then transferred them to the enterprises that purchased the invoices to use for payment and settlement with the Tax authorities.