The military personnel of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Sassari have discovered a major tax fraud, carried out by seven separate commercial companies that managed seven large stores specializing in the retail sale of household goods, housewares and clothing, all located in the city of Sassari and all managed by citizens of Chinese ethnicity .
A system based on issuing "ghost" receipts that allowed over 20 million euros to be evaded between 2020 and 2024.
Suspecting anomalies in the payment processing, investigators from the Guardia di Finanza launched an investigation—codenamed "Black Option" —and conducted technical checks on the seven companies' cash flows. They uncovered the ruse used : for purchases paid for using traceable electronic means such as credit or debit cards, the stores issued a regular receipt bearing the required "RT" (Telematic Register) logo, while for cash payments, employees issued a simple management document . This document was graphically identical to a legitimate tax receipt, but lacked the ministerial logo.
This trick was implemented with the dual purpose of both avoiding arousing customer suspicion and preventing the storage and subsequent electronic transmission of payment data to the Revenue Agency, resulting in the subtraction of significant revenues from taxation.
To stop the illegal conduct and gather evidence, the Judicial Authority ordered targeted local searches at the seven large-scale retail stores involved. Following these searches, the Guardia di Finanza seized all the management computers and cash registers used within the various stores.
The investigators were able to cross-reference every single transaction, identifying precisely which sales had been issued with a regular electronic receipt and which, instead, had been issued with a parallel management document.
Ultimately, a failure to file a tax return totaling more than €20 million was discovered. Therefore, in light of the serious circumstantial evidence gathered, the seven legal representatives of the companies were reported to the Sassari Public Prosecutor's Office for the alleged crime of false declaration. One of the seven directors was also reported for the crime of failure to file a tax return.
To ensure the recovery of the sums stolen from the treasury, the preliminary investigations judge of the Sassari Court issued a precautionary seizure order against the seven companies and the respective corporate and personal assets of their representatives , up to the amount of the proceeds of the crime. In execution of this order, bank accounts, real estate, land, vehicles, and company shares worth well over two million euros were seized.
(Unioneonline)