80 suspects held for making fake invoices worth $1.7b

Police have detained 80 suspects after cracking down on 10 cases involving fake value-added invoices worth more than 11 billion yuan ($1.69 billion) in a recent campaign code named Jufeng-38.

"Many computers, printers, bank cards, fake official seals, mobile phones, fake invoices and contracts were seized during Jufeng-38, or Hurricane-38, which was launched in the cities of Foshan, Shantou, Maoming, Huizhou, Dongguan and Zhongshan earlier this month," according to Wu Wuqiang, deputy director of the Guangdong Public Security Bureau's economic criminal investigation division.

In Foshan alone, 40 suspects were detained after a gang that used to make fake value-added invoices and indulge in tax fraud was busted in a special operation.

"The suspected gang leader surnamed Fan had established several shell companies to create fake value-added invoices and carry out tax fraud," Wu told a press conference in Guangdong provincial capital Guangzhou on Thursday.

The special operation was launched in cooperation with local taxation departments and administration of industries and commerce after several months of investigation, he said.

The Foshan case, which involved more than 5.1 billion yuan worth of fake invoices, involved 230 companies nationwide, said Wu.

Meanwhile, police in Maoming detained 20 suspects, including the suspected gang head surnamed Yang, after cracking down on another major case.

Yang, who allegedly had set up 9 shell companies, was suspected to have made out more than 38,000 fake value-added invoices valued at 5.2 billion yuan to more than 2,000 companies from 20 provinces, regions and cities in the country.

Yang's bank accounts with a total balance of more than 8 million yuan have been frozen, Wu said.

"Creating fake value-added invoices is a serious economic crime in the country and it has led to large economic losses to the country's revenue and caused unfair competition among companies and breached the normal financial operation in the mainland," Wu said.

Police will continue to spare no effort in its fight against the crime in the months to come, despite the achievement, he added.

He hinted more special operations will be launched to focus on investigating and fighting against the crime in the following months.

Police in Guangdong have cracked down on 270 cases involving fake value-added invoices in four special operations launched in the first 8 months this year.

More than 190 suspects have been detained so far.

And economic losses valued at more than 400 million yuan have been retrieved, Wu said.