Six Sassari residents, including building contractors, professionals and a condominium administrator, were charged with criminal association aimed at committing fraud against the state as part of measures to support the building sector, the so-called "bonus facades", in competition with another 47 between private individuals and condominium administrators, clients of the recovery or restoration works of the facades of their buildings.
The investigation was conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of the Provincial Command of Sassari. The judicial authority ordered the preventive seizure of 5,593,440 euros, equal to the profit from the crimes committed.
An act that represents the epilogue of more than a year of investigations by the Financiers to demonstrate the existence of a fraud system aimed at obtaining the recognition of fictitious credits linked to the facades bonus.
In particular, the suspects are accused of having put in place a complex fraudulent system, through banking transactions and the production of false technical and fiscal documentation (such as false declarations of the start of works to the Municipality, false invoices) to fictitiously certify the execution of construction works actually never executed or executed for significantly lower amounts. According to the investigators, they made illegal use of the "invoice discount" mechanism, managing to accumulate, through companies attributable to them, more than 5 million euros of undue tax credits in their tax drawers as they relate precisely to works construction projects never completed or over-invoiced.
With the "invoice discount", in fact, the client of the recovery or restoration interventions of the facade of the buildings (for example a private individual, a condominium) can benefit from the "façade bonus" in the form of a real discount (equal to 90% ) of the expenses incurred and thus give rise to a tax credit for the contractor (the construction company) of a corresponding amount, which can then be freely transferred to third parties.
The aforementioned tax credit is entered in the contractor's "tax drawer", via the Revenue Agency's "Credit Transfer Platform" web portal.
6 people were charged with the crime of conspiracy aimed at committing 52 episodes of aggravated fraud against the State (as they concerned public measures to support construction), while another 47 people (private clients, surveyors and condominium administrators) the participation in the execution of the specific cases of fraud was disputed. The investigating judge then ordered the direct and equivalent seizure of the entire amount of the credits fictitiously accumulated.
