The preliminary investigations judge of the Cagliari Court, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, has ordered the precautionary seizure of approximately €160,000 as part of an investigation into alleged tax fraud involving the use of false invoices totaling over €345,000.
According to investigators from the Economic and Financial Police Unit commanded by Colonel Paolo Pettine, between 2019 and 2021 a company with registered office in Cagliari allegedly used invoices issued by 11 alleged "shell" companies - and therefore companies that formally exist on paper, but which do not carry out any real economic activity and are used mainly to issue invoices relating to transactions that in reality never took place - Headquartered in Lombardy, Lazio, and Tuscany, these companies were said to have lacked a real corporate structure, were effectively inactive, and, according to the investigation, were dedicated to issuing invoices for non-existent transactions.
At the centre of the finance police's investigation is a businessman from Cagliari : according to the prosecution, he is said to have accounted for over 345 thousand euros in fictitious costs , with the aim of reducing the taxes to be paid.
During searches of the company headquarters and the entrepreneur's home, the financial police discovered over €100,000 in cash, kept in a walled-in safe and carefully hidden in a bedroom.
Investigators also analyzed hundreds of tax documents, characterized by generic descriptions or the failure to specify the purchased goods. Only a small portion of the transactions were verified as having been paid by bank transfer; however, the majority of the invoices , according to the Finance Police, were formally paid in cash, with amounts kept below the thresholds established by anti-money laundering regulations.