Russia Shuts Down $13 Billion Tax Fraud, Investigators Say

Russian investigators said they broke up an organized crime group in Moscow that was responsible for more than 1 trillion rubles ($13.3 billion) in tax losses to the state budget, which is already strained by a widening deficit.

The group had created more than 4,000 fictitious, legal entities since 2023 and sold fake invoices to nearly 40,000 organizations with information that was then reflected in tax reporting, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement on Wednesday.

The scale of the alleged fraud emerged at a time when Russia’s government is seeking ways to plug the budget deficit with the wartime ...