Sorrento, tax evasion: mega yacht of a famous lawyer seized

Sorrento, tax evasion: the mega yacht of a well-known lawyer has been seized. They allegedly embezzled €4 million from the treasury.

Maxi-preventive seizure against an entrepreneur, his lawyer father and an employee of the professional, all from the Sorrento peninsula. The three recipients of the preventive seizure decree, carried out by the men of the Guardia di Finanza group of Torre Annunziata and issued by the investigating judge of the Torre Annunziata court at the request of the Oplontina Prosecutor's Office, are investigated on various counts for fraudulent evasion of the payment of income taxes through the fictitious alienation of a luxury boat.

The measure is part of broader investigations developed by the Massa Lubrense financial police, resulting from a tax audit concluded against the lawyer, who was accused by the financial administration of tax evasion for approximately 4 million euros.

In particular, the object of the Guardia di Finanza's activity was the sale of a yacht owned by the professional to a Tunisian national, who later turned out to be a domestic servant employed by the lawyer himself.

Subsequently, the vessel was sold to a company active in the maritime transport sector, legally represented by the lawyer's son. Further investigations, from what we learn from the Prosecutor's Office, have allowed us to detect that, after having filed an appeal with the Court of Torre Annunziata, obtaining a sentence attesting to the simulated nature of the two sales, the lawyer sold the vessel again to the company represented by his son, at an agreed price of over 430.000 euros.

“From the activities carried out – underlines Nunzio Fragliasso, public prosecutor of Torre Annunziata – it turned out that the vessel had always remained at the disposal of the lawyer despite the multiple simulated transfers. In support of the fraudulent nature of the acts carried out in order to evade tax payments, making the aforementioned asset free from any coercive action by the Revenue Agency, the transfers occurred in a period in which the professional was already aware of his debt accrued towards the tax authorities”.

The court therefore ordered the direct seizure of the vessel.