QUEZON CITY – A Quezon City court convicted two top executives of Decarich Supertrade, Inc. accused of orchestrating a sophisticated fake receipt scheme, further highlighting the seriousness of the government in cracking down against “ghost corporations.”
In a decision promulgated on January 21, 2026, RTC Branch 100 found Decarich President Fernando Bitoon Lawas and Treasurer Adeline Manngas y Cañas guilty of violating Section 255 of the Tax Code. The duo was sentenced to up to three years in prison and ordered to pay fines for failing to provide accurate information in the company’s 2021 tax filings.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) investigation revealed that while Decarich was a legally registered domestic corporation on paper, it existed only in the margins of ledgers. When investigators attempted to serve a Mission Order at the company’s registered address, they found nothing. Certifications from barangay officials and building administrators confirmed the business never physically operated at its declared location.
“The act of supplying a non-existent address to the BIR is, in itself, a violation of the law,” the court noted in its ruling. “Without a physical office, Decarich could not have legitimately conducted the millions of pesos in business it claimed.”
The prosecution successfully argued that Decarich operated as a “ghost corporation”—an entity created solely to issue fraudulent receipts to other businesses. These “clients” would then use the fake documents to artificially inflate their expenses and deduct input VAT, effectively cheating the state out of millions in revenue.
The conviction rested on the discovery of fictitious sales where Decarich declared millions in transactions that investigators proved never occurred. The court highlighted patent inconsistencies in the company’s filings, ruling that Lawas and Cañas acted with deliberate, fraudulent intent to prejudice the government. Ultimately, the defense’s claims of legitimate operations were dismissed by the bench as a series of fabrications designed to mask a scheme that had no capacity for actual trade.
The conviction serves as a stern warning to “tax convenience” practitioners. The BIR has signaled that it will continue to move beyond mere audits, pursuing criminal charges against corporate officers who facilitate large-scale tax evasion through fictitious entities.