SMUGGLING AND TAX FRAUD, SEIZURE OF 1.5 MILLION EUROS. – CaffèTV24
The Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, acting as a delegate of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Republic of Vicenza, has implemented a preventive seizure decree against an entrepreneur Treviso, operating in the trade of watches and jewels, subjected to investigations for the crimes of fraudulent declaration through the use of invoices for non-existent operations and unfaithful declaration, with the subtraction of VAT of €1,490,893.80 from the tax authorities.
The activity is included in the context of a complex investigation conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Tessera, which
led to the unveiling of the systematic introduction into the national territory of numerous imported fine watches,
evading border rights, from Hong Kong via Marco Polo airport in Venice. Following story
investigative activity, the PEF Unit of Venice, on behalf of the GA, proceeded to reconstruct the volume of the
perpetrated fraud, in which, among others, a Vicenza company attributable to the aforementioned entrepreneur was involved,
used by the latter to market illegally imported watches at competitive prices.
The fraud scheme involved the issuance by a compliant Dutch company, in favor of the company
Italian, of (false) invoices for the sale of watches of the same make and model as those covered by
smuggling. This fictitious documentation had the sole purpose of simulating the legitimate origin
of valuables and certify the necessary requirements to be able to allow the Italian company to unduly benefit
of the special VAT regime envisaged for the trade in used goods.
Following the articulated investigations, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor of Vicenza, carried out by
the examination of copious accounting, non-accounting and IT documentation, the legal representative of
company was reported to the Judicial Authority for having evaded taxes for 1.5 million euro.
Upon conclusion of the investigations, the Judge for preliminary investigations at the Court of Vicenza, upon request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, deeming the investigative hypotheses reconstructed by the financiers to exist, issued a preventive seizure decree of the proceeds of the crimes, up to the amount of the total amount of the tax evaded, which made it possible to subject the cash and cash equivalents found in current accounts to restrictions of the company and its legal representative.