TAX Cobra, the special financial law enforcement unit, has revealed carousel frauds involving sugar, totalling some €19.5 million and perpetrated by two criminal groups.
“It is one of the most classic commodities to be used for VAT fraud,” said František Imrecze, head of the Financial Administration (FA), as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The fraud consisted in the so-called carousel scheme involving fictive billings. The case was complicated since part of the commodity was sold in Hungary, and part was sold in Slovak retail chains.
“The sugar had standard quality, so there was no problem from the perspective of food quality,” Imrecze added, as quoted by TASR.
Four people from the first group have been charged with tax fraud, with two of them being proposed to be taken into custody. The overall tax damage reached €18.6 million, with the tax evasion reaching €13.1 million. The fraudsters requested a tax allowance of €5.5 million, of which €3.4 million was not paid.
The second criminal group had 11 members, with the unlawful tax allowance reaching a total of €811,000, of which €630,000 was not paid, TASR reported.
Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar said that the police collected evidence for the crimes in 10 towns throughout Slovakia, carrying out 17 house searches.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
