Sentences to over two years of imprisonment and confiscation of assets worth over 2 million euros were ordered by the Court of Foggia, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor’s Office, against two entrepreneurs for bankruptcy and tax crimes.
The investigations began during a tax audit conducted by the Foggia Group of a wholesale and retail business of building materials.
During the inspection, a continuous flow of sales was discovered.”in black”, recorded through parallel accounting.
The goods, sold without issuing an invoice, were accompanied by an accounting document similar to a transport document, necessary in case of roadside checks, but in reality without any fiscal value. The sales were recorded in a parallel accounting hidden in the company’s IT system through a technical trick that allowed them to be excluded from the official one. A warehouse completely unknown to the tax authorities was also located and used for the parallel business activity “under the table”.
The reconstruction of the sales carried out also made it possible to shed light on an apparent state of financial crisis, which had led to the use of the composition with creditors, but in reality caused by the diversion of the company’s assets which continued even during the insolvency proceedings.
The investigations, which also made it possible to identify the de facto director of the company, an entrepreneur originally from Castelluccio dei Sauri, ended with the reconstruction of the conduct of the suspects in relation to the hypotheses of the crime of fraudulent bankruptcy and unfaithful declaration and, in the end of the judgment, with a sentence of two years and six months in prison.
Furthermore, the confiscation of movable and immovable property was ordered, also for equivalent, equal to the sum of €2,044,030.75 corresponding to the profit from the proven crimes. Consequently the financiers proceeded with the execution of the provision on n. 4 buildings and n. 4 pieces of land available to the condemned company, but merged into a company governed by Irish and English law.
It should be specified that, regardless of the gravity of the circumstantial evidence that led to the conviction of the suspects and the confiscation of their assets, they cannot be considered guilty until a final sentence has been pronounced.
