Foiled attempt to extort 261 million zlotys VAT tax
Officers from the CBA Regional Office in Białystok detained a member of an international organized criminal group specializing in large-scale VAT frauds. The extortion of at least 261 million zlotys from the State Treasury was foiled.
The Regional Office of the Central Anticorruption Bureau in Białystok conducts, under the supervision of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, an investigation regarding an organized international criminal group operating in Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. The group operated from September 2015 to May 2016. Through a series of related entities and the so-called tax carousel the group tried to extort at least 261 million PLN of VAT tax.
Officers from the CBA Regional Office in Białystok detained in the surroundings of Częstochowa a member of the group's strict management. The detained man is one of the so-called "Investors" who paid down financial resources to start the group's activity, and then benefited financial benefits from it. The man detained by the Central Anticorruption Bureau was transferred to the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, where he was charged. In the realization of the case, the CBA cooperated with the National Revenue Administration.
The prosecutor's office filed a motion to the court to apply a preventive measure in the form of pre-trial detention.
In the course of the investigation, it was established that the companies, through a series of fictitious international transactions documented by invoices, authenticated the trade in goods: batteries, coffee, sweets and other food products. Part of the carousel transaction chain was the so-called "straw-entities" - entities which after a number of transactions were liquidated. The appearance of legal activity was created. Entities operating within the "tax carousel" had thus the basis for applying for VAT refund for making (fictitious) intra-community supplies of goods - they wanted to extort the refund of 261 million PLN of VAT, at the expense of the state budget.
This is another detention in this case. In December 2017 officers of the CBA's Regional Office in Białystok detained 4 people, including members of the group's top management, including the citizens of Armenia and Belarus.
The CBA's Regional Office in Białystok also conducts other investigations concerning the activities of organized criminal groups dealing with VAT fraud. Their hitherto effects are foiled extortions for an amount not less than 100 million PLN.
It cannot be ruled out that the list of detainees will extend - the investigators are still working on the collected evidence.
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Foiled attempt to extort 261 million zlotys VAT tax
