According to a statement, audits carried out by auditors of the General Directorate of SDOE throughout the country brought to light serious violations, indicative of criminal activity.
In addition, its auditors SDOE in cooperation with Europol, a fraud ring was dismantled in Northern Greece, which extracted sums of money via the Internet with connections in Bulgaria, Romania & Luxembourg.
The most important audit cases from 01.01.2024 until today by the Operational Directorates of SDOE Attica & Macedonia are listed as examples:
A. Detecting a chain of shell companies
In the context of the execution of a Prosecutor’s Order, it was established that a number of fictitious – non-existent companies were established, with alleged administrators and members of these “straw people”, people who due to their personal situation were impossible to carry out business activity or were extremely difficult or even impossible to locate.
In total, in the above case, at least seven legal entities and seventeen natural persons are allegedly involved. The action of the aforementioned network of fictitious businesses was found to gather the characteristic elements of a criminal organization, with the aim of appropriating relevant taxes and consequently causing criminal financial damage to the State, through the issuance of fictitious documents.
In particular, it was established the existence of individuals who had a key-guiding role in the criminal organization, as well as others who had the role of identifying and recruiting potential “straw men”, while the established action of the above resulted in losses in public revenue from extradition fictitious tax documents and consequently, non-payment of the corresponding VAT amounting to 7,343,893 euros, while losses also occurred due to the non-submission of the required income tax returns. Also in total, for the above businesses it was found that they have overdue debts to the State for a total amount of 63,735,210 euros to date.
B. Grant Subsidy Audits
SDOE carried out audits on legal entities that received subsidies/grants based on the Development Law, finding the following:
An industrial enterprise was identified which did not comply with the terms of the applicable legislation. On the occasion of the fact that the company stopped its production process before the 5 years stipulated by the development law, a subsidy of more than 2.5 million euros was recovered.
It was found that a hotel unit in the Region of Thessaly received a subsidy, receiving virtual invoices with a total value of 760,000 euros. For this case, a Final Report has already been submitted to the competent Prosecutor.
C. Controls for labor law violations (ARTICLE 9 L.4490/2017)
To deal with the phenomenon of tax evasion and undeclared or partially and incorrectly declared work, labor and insurance legislation checks were carried out in 273 companies, during which 32 violations of undeclared work and 147 violations of declared work were found. For the above violations that result in fines of more than 500,000.00 euros, Audit Reports were drawn up and sent to the competent bodies.
D. Controls of the register of beneficial owners (ARTICLE 20 of L.4557/2018)
In the context of combating money laundering from criminal activities, where it is foreseen that it is necessary to identify every natural person who owns or exercises control over the legal entity, the SDOE carried out an audit of a chain of restaurants in the Prefecture of Attica, imposing fines totaling in the amount of 50,000.00 euros for failure to maintain the Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries at the registered office or legal establishment.
In addition to the above, audits were carried out in 217 businesses during which twenty-six violations related to non-submission of a declaration to the Central Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries and one violation related to late submission were found. Fines totaling 200,000 euros were imposed on the offenders.
E. Smuggling – counterfeiting – sampling
In the context of inspections to suppress contraband acts and in particular to combat violations found in the production and trafficking of ethyl alcohol, the bottling of illegal counterfeit and irregular alcohol with falsified labels of legal bottlers, inspections were carried out in seventy-seven businesses, in which one hundred forty samplings were carried out and four violations of illegal alcoholic beverages trafficking were found, while the responses from the State General Chemistry (G.X.K.) for the remaining cases of sampling are pending.
F. Fraud & Tax Evasion Checks
From audits carried out in 11 businesses in the prefecture of Thessaloniki with retail trade via courier and with a cash on delivery method of payment, it was found in the years 2020-2021 that taxable material had been concealed due to the non-issue of tax information totaling 753,066.00 euros.
Also, from an audit of a company with the object of work “Job finding office” in the city of Thessaloniki, it was found from the opening of bank accounts that a taxable amount of 209,482.00 euros had been hidden, while another audit detected a concealment of 74,800.00 euros.
For the above cases, Information Reports were drawn up and forwarded to the competent Services of A.A.D.E..
G. Cooperation with Europol – Dismantling an international fraud ring
Utilizing information through the EUROPOL network, an investigation was conducted on a resident of Northern Greece, for involvement in an international fraud ring via the internet with connections in Bulgaria, Romania & Luxembourg.
In particular, the international circuit, promising investments with a high yield, provided falsified documents extracting sums of money, which, after bank secrecy was lifted, were found to have ended up in third countries. In this way, total sums of more than 500,000.00 euros were disbursed to final recipients in Ghana.
The said case was forwarded to the Department of Asset Recovery from Criminal Activities & Mutual Assistance of DG SDOE for further utilization.
H. Counterfeit Traffic Controls
Businesses in Northern Greece dealing in counterfeit-counterfeit products were inspected and seizures were made involving 1,583 counterfeit products with a total value of 310,000.00 euros.
Also, according to newsit, five courier companies in Achaia & Attica were checked, from which 8,107 parcel shipments were seized which lacked legal documents, of which 1,700 parcels contained exclusively counterfeit products (shoes, clothes, bags, wallets and perfumes). The final recipients of the sums of money collected from counterpayments corresponding to tens of millions of euros are being investigated.
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