A Chinese gang is charged with printing $147 billion in fake receipts

THE sums are impressive by any standards. Had it been uncovered five years ago, the scam would have amounted to nearly 10% of China's GDP at the time. It is equal in value to Google's stockmarket capitalisation today. In what is being described as the biggest scandal of its kind since 1949, four men pleaded guilty in a court in Yunnan on February 22nd to producing bogus receipts valued at 1.05 trillion yuan ($147 billion). These could have denied the tax authorities more than 75 billion yuan in revenues. A fifth suspect will stand trial in a separate case.

The scam, operating in nine provinces, was based in Guizhou. In all, more than 1m fake receipts were found, ready for shipping to Kunming, Yunnan's capital, where they were to have been distributed and sold in China's larger cities. Two lorries were needed to carry them away. According to the tax authorities, the fake receipts were indistinguishable from the real thing. ...