Lai Chau: Arrested a subject illegally trading nearly 1,700 value added invoices

Lai Chau Provincial Police Investigation Agency seized from defendant Tran Anh Tai many electronic value-added invoice generating devices (USB Tokens) and some company legal seals.

In December 2023, through professional work, the Economic Police Department of Lai Chau Provincial Police discovered that from the end of 2020 and in 2021, Do Thi Thu Hien (born in 1981), an accountant of Ha Thanh Consulting and Investment Company Limited (Than Uyen town, Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province) discussed and asked Nguyen Thi Tham (born in 1990), also residing in Than Uyen town, to help buy value-added invoices showing that Ha Thanh Consulting and Investment Company Limited had spent money on purchasing goods for the purpose of declaring and evading taxes.

As an accountant, seeing an opportunity to “make money”, Nguyen Thi Tham went online to contact a man of unknown origin who posted an invoice for sale and bought 21 value-added tax invoices from this man with a total after-tax value recorded on the invoice of 1.32 billion VND. Tham then resold them to Hien, earning a difference of 3.2% - 4% of the value recorded on the invoice after tax.

With the collected documents and evidence, on December 27, 2023, the Investigation Police Agency, Lai Chau Provincial Police decided to prosecute the case and prosecute Do Thi Thu Hien for tax evasion and Nguyen Thi Tham for illegal trading of invoices for investigation and handling according to regulations.

During the investigation of the case, investigators discovered that in addition to colluding with the accountant of Ha Thanh Consulting and Investment Company Limited, defendant Tham also went online and contacted a number of other subjects to buy hundreds of value-added invoices to resell to organizations and individuals in Lai Chau province.

Among the subjects that defendant Tham transacted with to buy invoices, the subject with the Facebook account “Tran Thanh” emerged. According to the initial investigation, from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021, Tham purchased hundreds of value-added invoices from the Facebook account “Tran Thanh”, with the total amount after tax recorded on the invoice being nearly 2 billion VND.

Considering the seriousness of the case, in order to fight and clarify the subjects involved in the case, the Director of Lai Chau Provincial Police established a special project, assigned Colonel Pham Hai Dang, Deputy Director of the Provincial Police, as Head of the Steering Committee to mobilize forces, means and measures to fight and expand the case.

After many days of going to provinces and cities to collect information and documents, investigators from the Economic Police Department of Lai Chau Provincial Police coordinated with the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention - Ministry of Public Security, and the Police of several provinces and cities to investigate and clarify that the owner of the Facebook account "Tran Thanh" is Tran Anh Tai.

At the investigation agency, Tran Anh Tai confessed to having colluded with many managers and operators of nearly 60 "ghost companies" to buy and sell invoices for 360 organizations and individuals with a total amount of hundreds of billions of VND. Of which, Tai directly established and operated 4 companies in Ben Luc district, Long An province and Nha Be district, Ho Chi Minh City to illegally buy and sell value-added invoices. From 2020 to present, through "ghost companies", Tai issued nearly 1,700 copies of value-added invoices to sell to hundreds of organizations and individuals for the purpose of tax evasion.

The method of the subjects is to buy companies established by others or take the citizen identification cards of many individuals and then take advantage of the open policy on business registration to set up "ghost companies" to illegally buy and sell value-added invoices. After that, the subjects create Facebook accounts with different names to post invoices online to hide their whereabouts and background. During the tax declaration process, Tai falsely declared the value of purchased goods to be nearly equal to the value of sold goods with the aim of not arousing suspicion and detection from the authorities.

The Economic Police Department of Lai Chau Provincial Police is continuing to investigate and expand the case.