150 million VAT on the turnover of 300 thousand mobile phones, silver and platinum in 2015-2016. The criminal group has been dissolved. 4 detainees
Officers from the Regional Office of the Central Anticorruption Bureau in Białystok and the Regional Office in Olsztyn of the Police Central Investigation Bureau are taking part in today's operation against an organized criminal group that has been operating since January 2015 until December 2016 in Poland, Germany and Estonia, dealing with issuance of false invoices, extorting VAT and money laundering.
The CBA agents from Białystok and the officers of the Police Central Investigation Bureau in Warsaw and in the surrounding area detained four people - members of an organized criminal group that extorted or tried to extort from the state budget undue reimbursement of VAT in the amount of many tens of millions of zlotys.
Already in May 2017, as part of this investigation, the CBA officers thwarted an attempt to extort 100 million zł of VAT based on false invoices for half a billion zlotys for 300,000 mobile phones. The agents of the CBA from Bialystok detained then three persons.
Among the persons detained now by the CBA and the Police is a businessman from Warsaw from the recycling industry and accountant. Two more persons are entrepreneurs - they were detained in connection with the extortion of VAT on the trade of silver granules, platinum sheet and platinum.
The CBA agents and officers of the Central Investigation Bureau of the Police searched the suspects' places of residence, as well as other places related to the subject of the investigation, securing data carriers and accounting documentation of entities used in criminal activities.
The detainees will be transported to the headquarters of the Podlasie Terrain Division of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office in Białystok, where they will be charged.
Joint actions of investigators have allowed so far to charge 13 persons with extortions but also the attempt to extort over 150 million zł. Investigators disclosed fictitious invoices for over 750 million zł.
The case is developmental, further detentions are not ruled out.
