Beijing News Shell Financial News (Reporter Yu Jinmin) May 15 is the 15th National Public Security Organs' Publicity Day for Cracking Down on and Preventing Economic Crimes. On the 14th, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau held a press conference to inform the Shanghai police that the first case of using live broadcast rewards to implement false invoicing was detected.
On May 14, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau held a press conference.
Photo/Beijing News reporter Yu Jinmin photo
"There are 5 million meat in the account of the big brother on the list, and he needs to be able to chat privately."
In April 2023, the Shanghai police discovered that such an advertisement appeared on the Internet during their work, which attracted the attention of the police. After preliminary research and judgment, the police suspected that the "meat" mentioned in the advertisement was likely to be the amount of invoices that could be issued after the "big brother on the list" recharged the reward funds on the online live broadcast platform, and this invoicing amount was likely to flow into the hands of criminals and was used to commit the crime of false invoicing, and the police immediately launched an investigation.
After nearly a year of meticulous investigation, the police, together with the tax inspection department, dug out a complete chain of tax-related crimes involving Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hunan, Sichuan and other places, including intermediary merchants and false invoicing gangs.
In March 2024, the Shanghai police and the tax inspection department jointly carried out the "Hurricane No. 2" centralized network collection operation, successfully arrested more than 40 criminal suspects such as Ge, Huang, and Pan, and seized more than 80 mobile phones, cat pools and other equipment used in the crime. Up to now, it has been verified that the amount of false issuance exceeds 2 billion yuan. This case is the first case in which the Shanghai public security organs have successfully cracked down on the use of live broadcast to reward surplus tickets to commit the crime of false issuance.
Mobile phones, cat pools and other devices used in the crime. Photo/Courtesy of Shanghai Police
After investigation, intermediary account merchant Ge and others acquired more than 3,000 platform accounts on major live broadcast platforms at prices ranging from thousands to millions according to the different levels of each account. These accounts, including those acquired from the "Big Brother on the List", were used for resale at a high price, and the amount of invoices that could be invoiced became a source of huge illegal gains for Ge and others.
Ge and others used the invoicing quota in these accounts to pay remuneration to the account holders according to 0.8% to 1.5% of the invoicing quota of each account, and then according to the requirements of the downstream false invoicing criminal gang Huang and Pan, at a price of 2% to 3.5% of the invoicing amount, the invoices were directly falsely issued from the platform to the companies designated by them, and the total amount of false VAT special invoices and ordinary invoices exceeded 500 million yuan.
The people's police investigated and collected evidence in the case. Photo/Courtesy of Shanghai Police
However, the criminal gang of Huang and Pan used more than 130 shell companies registered to "launder" the above-mentioned false invoices, and then charged 7.5% to 12% of the face value of the invoicing fee and then wantonly opened them to the outside world. As of the time of the case, Huang, Pan and other criminal gangs of false invoicing had falsely developed fare taxes totaling more than 2 billion yuan, and had made illegal profits of more than 1,000 yuan.
At present, more than 40 criminal suspects in this case have been taken criminal compulsory measures in accordance with the law on suspicion of the crime of false issuance of special VAT invoices and false invoices, and the case is under further investigation.
After the case was cracked, the Shanghai Public Security Economic Investigation Department sent a risk warning to the administrative supervision department, and together with the administrative supervision department, urged the relevant online livestreaming platforms to further standardize the invoicing behavior, and increased the intensity of review and supervision of key elements such as recharge accounts, funds, and invoices. In the next step, the police will also carry out a comprehensive and in-depth crackdown on other illegal and criminal clues involved in the case.
Original topic: The Shanghai police cracked the first case of using live broadcast tips to implement false invoicing, and the amount has been verified to exceed 2 billion