EPPO

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bologna (Italy), two new freezing orders totalling €12.3 million were granted against suspects of VAT fraud relating to the illegal importation of fabric from China. 

During the execution of the new freezing orders, the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Prato seized over 3.6 million linear meters of fabric, with an estimated value of €4.9 million. In addition, €133 600 in cash was found at the home of a suspect, and over €128 000 has been frozen in a bank account.  

As previously reported, the investigation targets several companies suspected of evading VAT on the import of over 13 600 tonnes of textiles, worth around €63 million, from China into the EU. The suspects, including owners and managers of customs shipping companies in Prato and Bologna and Chinese entrepreneurs, are suspected of smuggling, forgery, and issuing fake invoices. Despite declaring the imports, they failed to move goods to tax warehouses, allowing immediate release without paying VAT. This scheme caused an estimated VAT loss of over €13 million. 

Earlier in this investigation, two freezing orders had already been granted. 

The new freezing orders were granted after the investigation identified a new suspect, believed to be a co-perpetrator of the crimes. In addition, an attempt to fraudulently conceal assets of one of the companies under investigation, in order to avoid the forfeiture from the financial administration for fiscal debts, was also uncovered. 

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Palermo (Italy), a freezing order exceeding €20 000 was executed last week against twelve public officials. The order, issued by the Palermo Court's judge for preliminary investigations, is part of an investigation into the embezzlement of EU funds for public school projects in a socially deprived area of Sicily.

The school has been the subject of an investigation into embezzlement of EU funds, as you can read in a previous press release. Further investigative measures carried out by the Palermo Carabinieri Investigative Unit revealed that ten public officials, namely teachers and school assistants, were accomplices in additional EU funds embezzlement cases. 

According to the investigation, they acted as experts or tutors in EU-funded scholarship programmes and forged documents certifying the implementation of activities that were never, or only partially, carried out. Additionally, the public officials falsely declared the number of pupils present during extracurricular hours and their own presence during those hours. In so doing, the public school principal, her deputy and their colleagues received over €100 000 in EU funds for their school.

€20 000 were frozen on the bank accounts of the twelve suspects.

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Milan (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Milan arrested four suspects and seized assets worth up to €97 million yesterday, in an investigation into a VAT fraud involving the sale of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

As previously reported, the scheme is in the area of VoIP (Voice over Intranet Protocol) – a technology that allows users to make voice calls via the intranet – involving companies in Czechia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Switzerland and the UK. The main beneficiary is understood to be a large company in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, with a core business of trading in the gas sector.

Evidence gathered during last year's searches indicates that the suspects have formed a criminal organisation, with the aim to systematically claim VAT repayments of more than €97 million. It is alleged that the suspects created a vast network of strawmen and missing traders in Italy and abroad, whose sole purpose was to issue invoices enabling the recipients of the invoices to get illicit profits from sales, and to claim tax reimbursements from the tax authorities without justification.

The judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Milan has ordered pre-trial detention of two of the suspects, while the other two suspects will remain under house arrest. 

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bologna (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Nucleo di Polizia Economico Finanziaria - Guardia di Finanza) in Ferrara executed a freezing order of nearly €2.4 million from two companies involved in the import of stainless steel coils. The companies and their administrators are being investigated for evading customs duties and ideological forgery.

According to the evidence gathered in recent months during searches in Ferrara, Varese, Milan and La Spezia and through wiretapping, it is suspected that the two companies under investigation declared to the customs agency in Ferrara false information about the origin of their products for more than 110 imports. The three administrators allegedly certified that the steel originated from South Korea when, in reality, the product was of Chinese origin. By doing so, the companies benefited from customs duty exemptions on goods from South Korea, avoiding nearly €2,4 million (€2.394.869,75) in additional  customs duties introduced by the EU’s 2019 anti-dumping regulation.

The investigative judge of the Ferrara Court, responding to the EPPO’s request, ordered the preventive seizure of nearly €2.4 million on the bank accounts of the companies, as well as some steel coils seized during earlier searches.

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Rome (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Giulianova (Teramo) have executed a freezing order amounting to €114 000 against one company, active in the non-specialised wholesale trade of food and tobacco. It is suspected of fraud involving funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

It is alleged that the owner of the company falsified the company’s financial statements, indicating higher revenues than the actual ones, to be eligible for obtaining RRF funds for the development of an e-commerce platform. He then submitted the request to SIMEST, Italy’s financial institution for the development and promotion of the activities of Italian companies, and responsible for managing and distributing RRF funds in these projects, which granted the company €228 000 in total. 

Thanks to a swift investigation, the second payment of €114 000 was never disbursed as the irregularities were detected and reported by Guardia di Finanza. Bank accounts worth €114 000 were frozen.