The scheme was that of "carousel fraud", which would have allowed VAT evasion of 44 million euros over three years - between 2016 and 2019 - by exploiting EU legislation on intra-community transactions. The fraudulent system was discovered by the Guardia di Finanza of Bologna which, as part of the "Carry on sell" operation, implemented a preventive seizure decree issued by the investigating magistrate for a total amount of 32 million, including cash , bank availability, real estate and company shares in the provinces of Bologna, Modena, Terni and also Sassari.
Only for the Bologna area has a round of false invoices for 210 million euros been reconstructed.
The fraud system would have been conceived and implemented by a 45-year-old from Terni, permanently residing in Bologna. The entrepreneur, according to the Fiamme Gialle, had put some of his nominees in charge of various companies with the task of buying IT products from a Polish company without applying VAT. The goods were then sold, only "securitously" and below cost, to further companies created specifically to interpose steps in the sales chain.
In all, 63 people have been reported, for various reasons, for failure to pay VAT, issue and use of invoices for non-existent transactions, failure to submit tax returns, crimes partly committed in the Bologna area and partly in other regions.
The fraud saw the involvement of 46 companies, considered total tax evaders, between Emilia-Romagna and other northern regions. These, in fact, in addition to not paying VAT and not presenting any tax declaration, were made to cease after a few months of activity to be promptly replaced.
At the end of the work carried out by the Finance, the Public Prosecutor's Office had 10 notices of conclusion of the investigation served to the 45-year-old believed to be responsible for the fraud and to the legal representatives of the companies operating in the Bologna area, contesting crimes of issuing and using invoices for non-existent operations.
(Unioneonline/vl)
