Fake GST invoice racket worth Rs. 1,481 crore busted by DGGI Meerut

The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI), Meerut Zonal Unit, has busted a large-scale racket involving bogus invoicing worth Rs. 1,481 crore, resulting in the passing on of fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) worth Rs. 275 crore. As many as 102 fake companies were set up to launder money through 1,000 front companies.

Late Monday evening, the Finance Ministry said that the DGGI Meerut Zonal Unit had successfully dismantled a huge syndicate commanded by four masterminds through diligent data mining.

One of them, who worked for a placement consultancy, was in charge of gathering PAN, Aadhaar, electricity bills, address proof, and other documents needed for GST registration. To do this, the mastermind persuaded candidates with small monetary incentives in exchange for handing over their KYC documents, which were used to carry out the fraud.

The operations were carried out through a covert office, where critical operational functions such as invoice generation, e-way bill preparation, GST returns filing, and maintaining the fake organisations’ sale-purchase ledgers were carried out. The syndicate hired various assistants to help them in their operations.

The syndicate kept in touch with a slew of middlemen who gave crucial information for the creation of fake invoices that benefited the eventual benefactors. As the inquiry progresses, it has also exposed the involvement of bank staff in the opening of bank accounts in the names of fictitious firms.

DGGI officers conducted coordinated raids at multiple various locations and seized a large cache of incriminating evidence, including laptops, desktops, electronic storage devices, PAN and Aadhaar cards, cheque books, exceeding 25 mobile phones, SIM cards used for receiving OTPs, shell entity rubber stamps, and so on.

All four accused were brought before Meerut’s Economic Offence Court and are being held in judicial custody till November 17