Plane ticket itinerary fraud operation busted

• Source: Global Times
• [08:19 August 05 2010]
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By Zhang Cao

Local authorities have detained 76 suspects in the biggest airplane ticket itinerary fraud case the city has ever seen involving some 6 million copies of the forged documents.

The fake itineraries that have allowed at least 29 air ticket agencies to avoid paying an unspecified amount of taxes were produced at 13 places in Shanghai as well as in Henan and Sichuan provinces.

The itineraries were then sold on the black market to customers around the city, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said Wednesday.

So far, 22 suspects involved in producing the fake documents and 54 suspects from the air ticket agencies in question are being held in the investigation, said police.

"The fake itineraries we found look almost the same as real ones, which makes it very difficult for ordinary people to tell the difference," Lu Wu, a police officer from the investigating team on the case, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Lu said that police were tipped off after a man surnamed Yang, one of the suspects now being held, transferred a large number of suspicious documents to Shanghai from other provinces.

Upon investigating further, officers found that the falsified documents were coming from a network of production sites, leading police to confiscate some dozen printing machines.

Police confirmed with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the only body permitted to print the itineraries, that the copies in question were fakes.

According to Lu Shuigen, deputy director of the Putuo district branch of the Shanghai Taxation Bureau, the bulk of the documents were purchased by air ticket agencies, who would then use them for tax evasion purposes.

"Some air ticket agencies buy tickets from airline companies at a cheap price, but sell these tickets to customers at a much higher price, so they need fake itineraries to give to the customers instead," he said, adding that there were also some cases involving individuals attempting the same fraudulent practice.

Police believe that the suspects involved in the case have been getting away with the fraud activity since last February.

Li Li, press officer for the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, told the Global Times Wednesday that the business of forged air ticket itineraries is no new phenomenon in the city, and admitted that authorities need to do more to crack down on the illegal activity.