Uzbekistan Fraud Ring Stole $2.7M Via Tax Cashback App

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Three individuals have been charged with engineering a large-scale budget fraud scheme that funneled illicit cashback payments to more than 211,000 Uzbek citizens through the state's own tax application — Soliq Mobile.

Investigators from the Department under the Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan uncovered the operation in Fergana Oblast. According to the investigation, the suspects created multiple Telegram groups through which they sold cashback entitlements generated by receipts issued in the name of seven shell companies that conducted no actual business activity.

The mechanics of the scheme were elaborate. The perpetrators generated fictitious electronic invoices for goods and services purportedly worth 3.3 trillion soums, then processed fake cash inflows through online cash registers to produce receipts. Those receipts were subsequently distributed to ordinary citizens via Telegram — who then submitted them through Soliq Mobile to claim cashback. Standard users were offered a 1% cashback rate; citizens registered in the social protection database were offered 12%, exploiting a state welfare incentive to maximize fraudulent payouts.

The scale of the operation was significant. Cashback was accrued for 211,584 citizens totaling 28.5 billion soums, of which 3.2 billion soums had already been disbursed before the scheme was detected.

Criminal proceedings have been opened under Article 167 of Uzbekistan's Criminal Code — misappropriation and embezzlement — and Article 228, covering the production, forgery, and use of falsified documents.

The case sits within a broader crackdown: the Tax Committee had previously suspended over 100 billion soums in social cashback payments and flagged more than 200,000 individuals suspected of attempting VAT refunds using counterfeit receipts. Investigations are ongoing.