A round of false invoices for 1.8 billion euros that led several large-scale distribution companies to evade VAT for over 260 million. The financiers of the Provincial Command of Milan are executing an order against 13 people, of which 9 house arrest and 4 prohibition to exercise companies and management offices of legal persons and companies, under investigation for the crimes of criminal association and tax fraud , in particular for fraudulent declarations through the use of invoices for non-existent transactions, omitted declaration and issuing of invoices or other documents for non-existent transactions.
The investigations of the economic-financial police unit of the Guardia di Finanza “made it possible to discover a VAT carousel fraud in the large-scale distribution sector (GDO), perpetrated by issuing and using false invoices for 1.8 billion euro by an articulated network of Italian and foreign companies ”, reads the note signed by the Milan prosecutor Marcello Viola.
The investigations, carried out in parallel with some tax audits conducted by the Revenue Agency, “made it possible to quantify the VAT evasion by the companies involved for an amount equal to over 260 million euros”. The companies managed by the suspects would have systematically carried out the purchase of the goods without the application of VAT, both through the presentation of false letters of intent to Italian suppliers, and through non-taxable intra-community transactions by paper companies (so-called “missing trader “) Interposed within the billing cycle of the goods. In this way, the chains of large-scale retail trade, the final beneficiaries of the alleged fraud, would have obtained an undue tax saving connected with the omitted payment of VAT by the missing trader companies.
Among the companies involved are Gs (controlled by Carrefour) and Auchan (now Margherita Distribuzione) and for both the preventive seizure of 33.8 million euros and 26.2 million euros respectively was ordered. Also involved are B2B and cash & carry intermediaries. With regard to the investigation, Carrefour Italia (parent company of GS) announced “that it has already launched an internal investigation to verify what has emerged and confirms its maximum willingness to collaborate with the competent authorities, making all the information necessary to to clarify the remarks formulated “.
The accounting documentation was also acquired through the police cooperation channel called Empact (European multidisciplinary platform against criminal threats), set up within Europol, which made it possible to collect information from the tax agencies of 12 European Union countries. At the state of the investigations, the investigating judge has ordered the preventive seizure of over 260 million euros, against 15 companies, equal to the amount of VAT evaded, also pursuant to the new regulations on the administrative liability of entities for tax offenses. Operations are underway in the provinces of Milan, Rome, Turin, Naples, Ancona, Brescia, Lodi, Vicenza, Rimini, Padua, Salerno and Potenza.