Law enforcement officials from the Fergana Province Branch of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the Prosecutor General's Office, have uncovered a massive fraudulent tax scheme, the department’s press service said.
Investigators revealed that three suspects—identified as M. Kh., M. Kh., and K. I.—conspired to set up specific groups on the Telegram messaging platform. Through these groups, they sold fake retail receipts issued on behalf of seven shell limited liability companies to everyday citizens. In Uzbekistan, standard retail purchases logged through the state system grant a 1% cashback reward, which surges to 12% for vulnerable citizens registered in the National Social Protection Registry.
The entire operation relied heavily on forged documentation. While the seven shell companies were completely dormant, the suspects generated fraudulent electronic invoices indicating that the businesses had supposedly sold goods and services worth 3.3 trillion soums.
These fictitious transactions were then logged into online cash registers to generate fake customer receipts. Consequently, the state’s Soliq mobile tax application processed and approved cashback rewards totaling 28.5 billion soums for 211,584 individual users.
Out of that total, 3.2 billion soums were successfully paid out directly from the state budget. Investigators believe this sum was completely embezzled by members of the criminal group.
A criminal case has been formally opened against the suspects under Article 167 (Embezzlement or Misappropriation) and Article 228 (Manufacturing, Forging, Selling, or Using Documents, Stamps, Seals, and Blanks) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan. The investigation remains active and ongoing.
This case follows an almost identical fraudulent operation uncovered earlier in the Andijan region. In that instance, fraudsters successfully drained 35.1 billion soums in state budget funds through false cashback rewards by opening nine shell companies under the names of three unsuspecting citizens and generating fake invoices worth 1.1 trillion soums.
As a result of these widespread vulnerabilities, approximately 204,100 individuals registered in the Unified Registry for Social Protection who attempted to claim VAT refunds using fraudulent receipts have been flagged and added to a high-risk user database. The Tax Committee previously announced a temporary suspension on all social welfare cashback payouts to stop further bleeding of state funds.
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