(source: SITA)
The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) has launched a criminal prosecution in the case of alleged tax evasion when building the Bonaparte residential complex. This stems from information the investigator provided to Freedom and Solidarity MP Jozef Rajtár, who submitted a criminal motion back in May, the Denník N daily reported.
As a member of the parliamentary finance committee, Rajtár was checking the excessive VAT refunds which the state paid in the past to companies owned by tycoon Ladislav Bašternák. Altogether, the sum amounted to €16 million.
The list of the VAT refunds includes also €3.6 million which the state paid to Bašternák’s company Real Forum Invest in 2011 at the time it was building the residential complex Bonaparte, in which Prime Minister Robert Fico lives, Denník N wrote.
“In Real Forum Invest’s list of profits and losses from 2011 the expense on materials, energy consumption and other non-storable supplies amounting to €25.7 million appeared,” Rajtár wrote in his motion, as quoted by Denník N. “The excessive VAT refund claim was probably applied on this expense.”
As the company did not declare any necessary incomes in following periods, no VAT was paid from these purchases. Thus there is a suspicion that fictive accounting and tax receipts were used to claim VAT refunds, the MP continued.
The company was later acquired by Karol Blaha and moved its residence to the village of Krivolát in Trenčín Region. The owner of the family house where it resides is Pavol Križan, while a further 11 companies linked to Blaha have their seat on the same address, Rajtár claimed, as reported by Denník N.
Also, the company Rent and Wash, from which Bašternák bought seven flats for €12 million in cash and from which he later claimed a €2 million refund, moved to the same address in 2013, according to the daily.
