They did not pay social security contributions to their workers thanks to accounting tricks with the complicity of accountants who had created shell companies from which they obtained false tax compensations.
In recent weeks, the financial police of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Ancona - Revenue Protection Group, under the direction of the local Public Prosecutor's Office, have executed a precautionary seizure order issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Doric Court on assets and financial resources worth over 6 million euros against nine companies - four of which have registered offices in the province of Ancona and five in Campania - and seven individuals investigated for tax crimes committed as early as 2016.
The investigations, which lasted almost two years, involved a total of 27 individuals and 21 companies, located in the provinces of Ancona, Naples, Rome, Milan, Salerno, Caserta and Chieti, and shed light on a well-tested and consolidated fraud system that allowed the companies involved, most of which were active in the shipbuilding sector and operating in the ports of Ancona, Monfalcone, Marghera, Savona and Castellammare di Stabia, to avoid paying the due social security and welfare contributions, quantified at over 6 million euros, through fraudulent compensations with non-existent VAT credits artfully created by other colluding or “shell” companies.
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: Citizenship income for relatives of Camorristi: 190 thousand euros seized
The articulated ones investigative activities, resulting from detailed tax audits, were developed through the execution of searches and document acquisitions in seven different Regions as well as in-depth bank investigations and analytical document reconstructions, including computer-based ones. In particular, approximately 140 gigabytes of digital data and the movements of over 20 financial relationships opened at various credit institutions and intermediaries were sifted through.
It was thus possible to ascertain that the transactions that had generated the large VAT credits, then used as compensation by other companies, were in fact non-existent or artificially overvalued.
Suffice it to say that a machine, found by the financial police dismantled and never put into operation inside a warehouse, had been formally sold and invoiced as a “patent” worth 12 million euros for the sole purpose of “inflating” the VAT credit.
At the end of the investigations, a total of 27 people were reported to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Ancona, deemed responsible for the crime of "undue compensation" (provided for by art. 10 quater of Legislative Decree 74/2000), among whom we note the presence of seven professionals (5 accountants, a chartered accountant and a labor consultant), resident in the provinces of Brindisi, Milan, Rome, Catania, Latina, BAT and Chieti, responsible for affixing the conformity stamp on the tax returns with which the undue compensation of taxes materially occurred. This certification allowed the companies involved to omit the payment of social security contributions and taxes and, in this way, to acquire greater competitiveness on the reference market thanks to the fraudulent reduction of costs.
The elements collected therefore allowed the Guardia di Finanza to formulate a request for preventive seizure for equivalent, accepted by the Judicial Authority of Doria, also aimed at protecting the Treasury coffers from the huge damages caused by the criminal behaviors carried out.
Article published on May 26, 2021 - 11:36 pm
Video Chronicles
