According to an indictment, in late 2020, Nguyen Huy Minh, director of Anh Duong Company, for example, purchased various types of phones and tablets from retail sources without invoices or documents for export. To legitimize the tax refund process for the company, Minh sought out fake invoices and documents.

Nguyen Ba Dong, a former tax official at Nga Son Tax Department in Thanh Hoa, and Vu Van Khanh, a former officer in the Economic Security Division of Thanh Hoa Provincial Police, were enlisted by Minh to find suppliers of invoices for Anh Duong Company.

Dong then enlisted Vu Van Lieu (born 1977, Thanh Hoa resident) to procure invoices for Anh Duong Company. For his part, Lieu contacted an individual named Ngoc in HCMC (identity unknown) to buy invoices. Ngoc and Lieu agreed on a cost of 2.3 percent of the pre-tax invoice value for the invoices.

The company using the invoices (Anh Duong Company) would handle the formal bank transfers. Lieu and Khanh agreed as follows: Charge a fee of 6 percent of the pre-tax invoice value from Anh Duong Company's director. After deducting 2.3 percent paid to Ngoc, the remaining 3.7 percent would be shared between Lieu and Khanh. Specifically, Lieu would take 0.5 percent, while Khanh and Dong would pocket 3.2 percent.

Once the parties agreed, Nguyen Huy Minh instructed Anh Duong Company's chief accountant to contact Lieu and provide him with data so Lieu could issue invoices and documents from An Nhien Company to Anh Duong Company.

The indictment showed that from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2021, Minh used value-added tax (VAT) invoices from An Nhien Company to declare export tax refunds for Anh Duong Company, involving a total of 11 VAT invoices corresponding to 1,324 exported phones as per the declarations, with a pre-tax value exceeding VND10 billion and VAT over VND1 billion.

Additionally, Minh was accused of fraudulently obtaining over VND23.5 million in tax refunds from the former Dong Da District Tax Sub-Department in Hanoi.

At the first-instance trial in late September 2025, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Minh to 4 years in prison for tax evasion and 1 year for fraud to appropriate property. Meanwhile, Vu Van Lieu received 2 years and 6 months in prison, and Nguyen Ba Dong got 2 years in prison, both for illegal invoice trading. Former police officer Vu Van Khanh was sentenced to 18 months' suspended imprisonment for the same offense of illegal invoice trading.

Tycoon tried in absentia twice

Another tycoon accused of amassing wealth through illegal invoice trading is Nguyen Dang Thuyet, former general director of Thanh An Hanoi. In March, 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to 16 years in prison. Prior to that, related to the AIC case, in January 2023, Thuyet was also tried in absentia and sentenced to 30 months in prison for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences.

Combined with the 30-month sentence from the previous verdict, defendant Thuyet must serve a total sentence of 18 years and 6 months in prison.

Regarding the criminal acts of the former general director of Thanh An Hanoi, the indictment says that Thuyet established and directed all operations of Thanh An Company, Danh Company, and Trang Thi Company.

The businessman instructed employees to maintain two parallel accounting systems at all three companies and directed the purchase of fake invoices to inflate cost of goods sold and expenses, concealing actual profits and reducing taxes owed, causing over VND743 billion in state losses.

Thirty-two individuals, including directors, shop owners, and legal representatives of companies or individual business households, aided Thuyet. Despite having no business dealings with Thanh An Company, Danh Company, and Trang Thi Company, they still signed contracts to sell fake invoices to this group for illicit gains.

In another case, expanding the investigation into a ring trading over VND 4,400 billion in invoices, in March, the HCMC Economic Police Department prosecuted 10 company directors and employees.

Initial investigation results showed that defendant Dang Ngoc My Trang and accomplices established and used 41 "ghost companies" to illegally sell over 35,000 VAT invoices to nearly 6,500 businesses and units in 52 provinces and cities, totaling over VND 4,400 billion in value. Through this, the defendants illicitly gained over VND60 billion.

T. Nhung