Massive tax embezzlement uncovered involving Uzbekneftegaz and tax officials in UZS 643.2 billion fraud

According to official reports, responsible figures from the Tax Committee, the Bukhara Regional Tax Administration, Uzbekneftegaz JSC, and Sh.G. LLC conspired with officials from several contracting companies. These included the S.E. LLC joint venture, A. LLC, and the permanent establishment of E.E. LLC in Uzbekistan.

The investigation revealed that although UZS 5.3 trillion worth of services provided for the expansion of the Shurtan gas chemical complex were legally exempt from value-added tax (VAT), the co-conspirators illegally injected VAT amounts into electronic invoices. This manipulation generated an artificial, unsubstantiated VAT credit within the state budget. The suspects then arranged for these fraudulent funds to be transferred directly to the bank account of A. LLC, while simultaneously wiping out the state-owed credit liabilities of the S.E. LLC joint venture. Through this systematic misappropriation and embezzlement, the network managed to steal UZS 643.2 billion in public funds.

A criminal case has been officially initiated under Article 167 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, which covers embezzlement or misappropriation. Active investigative procedures are currently underway to identify all complicit individuals and assess the full scope of the financial damage.

For context, Enter Engineering serves as the general contractor for the multi-billion soum Shurtan gas chemical complex expansion project.