BRATISLAVA, November 1, (WEBNOVINY) – Informing of an extensive VAT fraud involving a 17-member crime group at a news conference on Tuesday Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic said that the head of the gang was Jan Z. while one of the members was ex-director of a tax office in south Slovakia. Most of the group members have been charged while the investigator has proposed to take three persons into custody. The minister specified that six persons have been accused of establishing and supporting a crime group and of a fraud resulting in a large-scale damage while eleven persons have been charged with founding and supporting a crime group. Charges against straw men have been delayed for now.
The minister informed that according to the Office for Fight against Organized Crime the members of the group received nine million euros in VAT refunds they were not entitled to but n additional 17 million euros was saved. Lipsic reported that as authorized representatives of fictitious firms they signed various accounting and other documents enabling them to claim VAT refunds based on fictitious trading in fictitious goods including mainly webcards, leather footwear and calendars. According to the minister the police have disclosed a relatively big net of firms whose mutual deals enabled them to illegally claim VAT returns. “We were not content with naďve straw men but we go after important, top representatives of crime gangs and we will not stop at lower levels,” said the minister. “In Slovakia nobody can stand above law. Neither gangland bosses nor bosses of economic crime groups,” he added.
SITA