Electric bicycles and components from China, a company accused of evasion of customs duties for over 2 million
VENICE – Venetian officials of theCustoms Office and military of the provincial command of the Finance Police executed a preventive seizure order for € 2,174,922issued by the Gip of Venice at the request of the European Public Prosecutor of Venice, against a well-known company in the province that produce and market bicyclesaccused of having evaded customs duties for the same amount and whose managers are under investigation for contraband aggravated and false in public deed.
The survey was born from the activity of intelligence carried out by the officials of the Venice Customs Office and focused on examining all the operations of import of electric bicyclesdo at the office after the publication of an EU regulation of 2018 which, to stop the commercial politician underselling by the manufacturers of the People’s Republic of China set up a anti-dumping duty on such products and related parts exported from China.
Thanks to the many years of experience of the Venice Customs Office in the investigation of frauds carried out for the avoidance of anti-dumping duties, a alleged evasion of duties anti-dumping of over 2 million euroswhich follows the practice implemented by unfair commercial operators following the imposition of the aforementioned anti-dumping duties, consisting in importing the individual components of the final object in several shipments and then assembling them in Italy.
The investigations, directed by the European Public Prosecutor of Venice and continued with the collaboration of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, however, allowed to collect evidence to refute the apparent lawfulness of cities components of electric bicycles. In fact, through the precise comparison of all the paper and computer documents acquired thanks to the verification at the company’s premises, the flow of orders to Chinese supplierson the basis of which emerges the desire to evade the anti-dumping duty due on electric bicycles and their parts.
The investigative cooperation between the Customs Agency and Monopoly (Adm) and the Guardia di Finanza, coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, made it possible to protect the tax interests of the country and the European Union in a timely and effective manner, as well as helping to restore the conditions for guarantee of conditions of fair competition for commercial operators who operate in compliance with the rules.