46 detainees on the CBA's clock regarding traders of fictitious invoices. Tens of millions of losses to the State Treasury
Another 3 people involved in the turnover of fictitious VAT invoices detained by Łódź CBA officers. The losses of the State Treasury due to the activities of the whole gang amount to tens of millions zlotys.
The Regional Office of the Central Anticorruption Bureau in Łódź, under the supervision of the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, is investigating a multi-person group dealing with issuing unreliable invoices and their sale, in order to reduce VAT and CIT tax liabilities, as well as appropriation of money and extorting EU funds.
Officers from the Łódź Regional Office of the CBA detained in Małopolska another three people involved in fictitious VAT invoices and the depletion of the State Treasury's receivables in the amount of about one million zlotys in total. They are board members of companies from the printing and furniture industry. The amount of revealed depletions may increase, activities are ongoing. The CBA officers searched the detainees' apartments. Property was also secured - 4 cars worth a total of about 200,000. zł.
Detainees will hear charges in the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw.
Among those previously detained in this investigation was, among others, Jan C., deputy to the Sejm of the 7th term, and Artur J. and Krzysztof M., who were charged with tax depletions for a total amount of approx. 60 million PLN and money laundering worth approximately 14 million PLN.
The investigation began when officers from the CBA Regional Office in Łódź tracked a Warsaw businessman Łukasz P. who officially ran a business consulting firm. He was to help other companies pay lower taxes. It turned out that he did it in an illegal way. The man was detained by the CBA red-handed in November 2016 when he took nearly half a million for fictitious invoices. On the same day, the CBA detained 12 people involved in the illegal operation.
During the investigation it was established that one of the detainees caught by the CBA - Tomasz S. organized a network of companies registered in Poland, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates. The companies issued invoices documenting apparent economic transactions, which served to extort EU subsidies, but mainly to depress VAT and CIT tax liabilities. Investigative findings indicate that it also came to money laundering. Money was transferred through a number of Polish and foreign companies. After such turnover, the cash was paid to members of the management boards of the companies from which the funds initially floated. Not always the entire management boards of companies took part in illegal activity - some managers acted on their own, "worked" on fictitious invoices, and the money was appropriated.
Along with the current operation, the list of those involved in illegal dealings, already disclosed and detained by the CBA, has already extended to 46 people. The investigators still do not rule out further operations.