After two days of deliberations, the People’s Court of Da Nang on June 25 handed down verdicts in a landmark tax evasion case, sentencing 39 individuals and penalizing 8 commercial entities for the illegal trading of VAT invoices and tax evasion. The scheme caused losses of over 170 billion VND (approximately 6.7 million USD) to the state budget.

Nguyen Khac Dien, based in Ho Chi Minh City and identified as a ringleader, received a five-year prison sentence for illegal invoice trading. Co-defendants Nguyen Thi My Hau and Dinh Thi Quynh Huong from Da Nang were sentenced to 2.5 years and 3.5 years in prison, respectively. Other defendants received varied sentences depending on their level of involvement.

The court noted this was an exceptionally large and complex case involving long-term operations with sophisticated methods spanning Da Nang and other provinces.

Dien was found to have created 154 shell companies in Ho Chi Minh City, issuing and selling 71,678 VAT invoices without any actual goods or services being exchanged, reaping over 67 billion VND in illegal profits.

A second network, also based in Ho Chi Minh City, established 106 ghost companies and issued 62,117 false invoices. The full extent of the illicit profits remains unclear due to the ringleader’s death during the investigation.

In Da Nang, from 2019 onward, Dinh Thi Quynh Huong used companies she created to illegally issue, purchase, and broker VAT invoices. She issued 470 fake invoices worth nearly 45.7 billion VND before tax, illegally purchased 36 invoices worth over 8.7 billion VND, and brokered the sale of 907 invoices with a pre-tax value of 780.4 billion VND.

From 2020, Nguyen Thi My Hau formed six shell companies and used them to issue 999 invoices valued at more than 270.6 billion VND and acquired 716 fake invoices worth over 323 billion VND. Her illicit profit was estimated at nearly 3.7 billion VND.

Additionally, the court ruled against eight commercial legal entities for illegally purchasing input invoices to manipulate tax filings, evading a total of 82.1 billion VND in taxes.

Ho Giap