Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, April 12 th: The boss’s entertainment and over-standard reception all bought invoices for reimbursement of public funds-uncovering the "tricky" behind the case of false invoicing of more than 200 million yuan
Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Liangheng from Xinhua Viewpoint
All kinds of entertainment, gifts and red envelopes, and over-standard reception by the boss singing and fishing … … All this needs to be reimbursed with invoices and public funds. The police in Changsha, Hunan recently cracked a major case of false invoicing, which uncovered the tip of the iceberg of illegal public funds consumption.
Since 2012, criminal gangs have falsely opened and resold invoices of more than 200 million yuan, and many units involved in the case have used the purchased invoices to "wash white" improper expenses. More than 40 units are listed in Changsha alone.
A survey by Xinhua Viewpoint reporter found that in recent years, with the deepening of the eight central regulations and anti-four winds, the behaviors of treating guests and giving gifts, eating and drinking, and giving subsidies indiscriminately have been greatly curbed. However, in some local government agencies, enterprises and institutions, the above-mentioned improper consumption still exists, and it has become hidden or even "legalized" through false invoicing and false expenses.
Criminal gangs resell more than 200 million yuan of real invoices in four years.
"All the invoices are real, all from supermarkets, shopping malls and hotels in Changsha." Yin Bo, head of the discipline inspection team of Changsha State Taxation Inspection Bureau, said that the amount of a gang suspected of falsely issuing invoices was as high as 200 million yuan, which was the first case seized in Hunan Province since the imprisonment of falsely issuing ordinary invoices in 2011, and the case value was rare in China.
Wang Mohu, a 32-year-old native of dengzhou city, Henan Province, has a criminal record. When doing the business of recycling shopping cards in shopping malls and supermarkets, he found that many "card dealers" in Beijing also made profits by reselling invoices in shopping malls and supermarkets, so he moved the idea of reselling invoices.
In 2012, Wang Mohu came to Changsha and found that the local invoice dealers sold fake invoices, and they didn’t know that they could make money by selling real invoices. Wang Mohu then tried his best to get in touch with the salespersons and financial personnel in Changsha shopping malls and supermarkets. After receiving the "work", he secretly opened the invoice as required.
After earning money, Wang Mohu bought luxury cars and brand-name clothes, and lavished himself as a "big boss", gradually becoming "famous" in the "circle", and many fake invoice dealers joined his gang one after another.
"Under the temptation of interests, Wang Mohu built a criminal network of selling invoices with him as the core, around Changsha Railway Station and Yuanjialing, involving more than 30 people off the assembly line." Chen Yaosong, deputy head of Changsha Economic Investigation Detachment, said.
Since 2012, Wang Mohu’s gang has collected customers’ orders by distributing business cards, posting small advertisements, sending short messages in groups, and distributing online advertisements, charging the "billing fee" of ticket buyers at 1.5% to 6% of the billing amount, and paying benefits to relevant financial personnel or salespersons at 1% to 3.5% of the billing amount. Before the incident, the gang was suspected of falsely issuing ordinary invoices amounting to more than 200 million yuan.
According to reports from the masses, in May 2015, the Economic Investigation Detachment of Changsha arrested 14 suspects, including the principal offenders Wang Mohu and Qin Mouwei, destroyed 2 dens, temporarily detained a large number of computers and other items involved, and collected 41 forged seals of shopping malls and companies.
Buy invoices for all kinds of "hard" expenses.
Where do a large number of invoices flow? Liuyong, head of the Sixth Brigade of the Economic Investigation Detachment of Changsha Public Security Bureau, who was in charge of handling the case, said that most of the companies involved in the purchase of invoices were major banks, insurance companies, securities companies, pharmaceutical companies, real estate and tourism companies, as well as government agencies, institutions and state-owned enterprises. Most of them are in Hunan province, and they also involve Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Hubei provinces and cities.
Yin Bo introduced that the general invoices issued by Wang Mohu’s gang are mostly office supplies, labor insurance supplies, computer consumables, cultural and sports supplies, meals and conference fees. While providing genuine invoices, they can also provide fake blank detailed lists, and then affix the seals of privately carved shopping malls, supermarkets and hotels, and buyers can fill in the specific contents as needed.
"All units purchase invoices for various purposes, such as granting subsidies, treating guests and giving gifts, coordinating relationships, and receiving customers. According to the regulations, these expenses cannot be charged in the unit accounts, so they are reimbursed by buying invoices. " Chen Yaosong said that the essence of this behavior is to extract unit funds for all kinds of "hard-to-say" expenses.
A staff member of a state-owned enterprise in Hunan Province said that in the daily business activities of enterprises, public money consumption such as gift money, red envelopes and over-standard reception still exists more or less secretly. According to the financial regulations of state-owned enterprises, these expenses cannot be directly recorded, and most of the managers will ask invoice dealers to buy ordinary invoices that can be charged to the project for reimbursement.
"No matter what the nature of the unit, the act of falsely invoicing and withdrawing funds does not comply with relevant laws and regulations, and it is very likely that corruption will be hidden." Yuan Baishun, executive director of the Integrity Research Center of Hunan University, said.
In recent years, discipline inspection and auditing organs at all levels have investigated and dealt with many typical cases of falsely issuing invoices and obtaining funds. For example, in 2015, the feedback report of the special inspection conducted by the Tenth Inspection Team of the Central Committee on China Association for Science and Technology showed that the financial system of China Association for Science and Technology was not perfect, the management and use of funds were not standardized, and false invoice reimbursement and illegal subsidies were frequent.
In June 2014, the audit results of CIC’s 2012 profit and loss of assets and liabilities released by the National Audit Office showed that since 2010, cathay pacific fund used fake invoices to collect funds of 43.3004 million yuan, which was used to pay sales staff rewards outside the account, of which 17.9325 million yuan occurred in 2012.
Strengthening the management of surplus invoices, the reimbursement system needs to be improved
Why can invoice dealers issue a large number of real invoices from shopping malls and supermarkets? The financial director of a large supermarket enterprise in Changsha told the reporter that large commercial retail enterprises pay taxes according to statements, not invoices, and many consumers may not ask for invoices from merchants, so shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels and catering enterprises have a large number of surplus invoices.
Yin Bo introduced that if the turnover of a supermarket is 200 million yuan a year, but the invoices demanded by customers are actually only 100 million yuan, a surplus invoice of 100 million yuan will be formed. These surplus invoices give criminals an opportunity to collude with the "insiders" of commercial enterprises and issue invoices according to the names specified by the ticket buyers.
Insiders pointed out that in order to cut off the interest chain of reselling invoices, we must prevent surplus invoices from flowing out at the source. Public security and tax departments should intensify investigation and punishment, urge commercial retail enterprises involved to crack down on "insiders", plug loopholes and implement stricter supervision and management of surplus invoices.
"Failure to fill in the invoice names according to regulations is also prohibited by laws and regulations. For this kind of behavior, at present, the tax authorities mainly give administrative punishment, but the punishment is small, which does not play a deterrent role at all. In order to attract business, some merchants fill in the invoice name at will, as long as they are within the business scope, it is no problem to open anything. " Yin Bo suggested that the tax authorities and the judicial authorities should strengthen the linkage and severely crack down on the act of falsely filling out the invoice names according to law.
The key to cracking down on the sale of invoices is to curb demand. Yuan Baishun said that in terms of audit supervision mechanism, relevant departments should innovate "civil air defense" and "technical defense" measures, carry out account investigation and invoice investigation, and accurately identify behaviors such as false invoicing, false expenses, and inconsistent accounts. In financial management, government agencies, enterprises and institutions should improve the invoice reimbursement responsibility system and formulate strict invoice reimbursement procedures and requirements. For example, when reimbursing, the handler is required to provide a machine-made detailed list, and strict restrictions are imposed on the detailed list filled in manually, which increases the operational difficulty of false expenses.
"In addition to severely punishing invoice dealers, it is also possible to strictly investigate a number of units and individuals that receive a large amount of tickets and withdraw more funds in accordance with the law, and increase the illegal cost." Chen Yaosong said.