Two face charges over S$11.8 million in GST fraud from sham transactions
The accused pair set up four shell companies and allegedly attempted to claim GST refunds from the taxman, say the police
[SINGAPORE] Two men each faced four charges of fraudulent trading on Tuesday (Aug 5), for their suspected involvement in a goods and services tax “missing-trader” fraud involving about S$181 million.
Missing-trader fraud is said to have taken place when a seller – the “missing trader” – collects goods and services tax from a sale, but fails to hand it over to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras).
The pair, aged 40 and 73, were said to have set up four shell companies between November 2017 and April 2018. Then one of the companies allegedly sold goods at inflated prices to the other companies, for proceeds totalling S$181 million.
The police said in a statement: “It is believed that the sales and purchases among the companies were sham transactions, created to facilitate the claiming of GST from Iras.”
The younger of the two suspects allegedly submitted three fraudulent GST refund claims to Iras in an attempt to defraud the statutory board of S$11.8 million.
He is said to have forged a supplier’s invoice and submitted it to Iras to cheat it into approving the GST registration of one of the shell companies. He also allegedly submitted three additional fraudulent GST refund claims under the Electronic Tourist Refund Scheme without the said purchases having taken place.
If convicted of fraudulent trading, the men may face up to seven years imprisonment, a fine, or both.
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