The Guardia di Finanza carries out, throughout the national territory and abroad, precautionary patrimonial measures against 42 natural persons and 39 legal persons
Terni, 23 May 2024 – At the conclusion of the maxi inspection operation for the tax fraud triggered throughout the national territory and in Romaniaalso the soldiers of the Provincial Command of Terni, delegated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Terni, with the support of soldiers of the ICO Central Service and the territorially competent sub-delegated departments of the Corps, carried out preventive seizure measures.
Terni was the headquarters of the maxi frodand, because a tax consultancy firm was active here which created false VAT credits and then resold them to third-party companies. The latter used them to reduce their debt to the treasury through fictitious companies opened by frontmen, all doing nothing, who generated false invoices and therefore false credits, then sold at a premium.
The investigation began two years ago, after a tax audit carried out by the financiers on behalf of the consultancy firm and where a series of inconsistencies immediately emerged.
Today the Lybra operation, so renamed by the Guardia di Finanza. The suspects are 42 natural persons and 39 legal persons. The precautionary asset seizure order is for 12.5 million euros and was signed by the investigating judge of the Terni court.
The crimes contested are those of criminal association aimed at tax fraud, money laundering and self-laundering, use of money deriving from crime in economic activities, undue compensation, unfaithful declaration, failure to declare and issuing invoices for non-existent operations.
For the execution of the decree, several local searches were carried out, throughout the national territory and abroad, against the suspects and company complexes, assets and financial resources of the suspects in the Terni area were identified and seized. and 14 other provinces (Milan, Turin, Biella, Novara, Verona, Lucca, L’Aquila, Teramo, Viterbo, Rome, Naples, Potenza, Catania and Sassari), as well as in Romania, thanks to the collaboration of the judicial authorities through EUROJUST.
The activity was carried out following a complex reconstruction of the fiscal and financial position of various economic entities and natural persons, carried out through the monitoring of financial flows which allowed the reconstruction of the criminal association network.
The investigation originated from a tax audit carried out on a tax and fiscal consultancy company, formally resident in Rome but actually operating in the Terni area, which carried out the function of “guarantor” in the institution of tax collection with the role of intermediary between the paying party and the paid party.
In summary, the consultancy company, through civil contracts, guaranteed the success of the compensation operation for the tax debts of multiple taxpayers, spread throughout the national territory, with tax credits generated by third-party companies, also providing legal advice in case of control by the financial administration.
In fact, from the administrative activities carried out, clear anomalies emerged in relation to the generation of the VAT credit claimed by the companies, which revealed themselves to be mere paper mills and technically called “advancements”, given that they were mostly devoid of the economic and operational capacity capable of generating an exposure creditor of that entity.
The reconstructed fraudulent mechanism was implemented through the creation of various companies registered in the names of propertyless individuals, without certified sources of income, for the sole purpose of generating and displaying in the declaration a large tax credit not justified by the necessary accounting documentation. The association made use of some compliant professionals who falsely certified the genuineness of the tax declarations, by affixing conformity stamps that did not really prove the company’s reality.
Subsequently, the VAT credit was transferred through the stipulation of tax assumption agreements between the accepting companies (paper mill company holding the credit) and the undertakings (company holding the tax debt) and a guarantor company. The contract served to provide a simulated legal justification for the clearing operations.
In short, the payer (paper company), which had generated the fictitious credit, through the guarantor company, “paid” on behalf of the taxpayer (paid), real debtor to the Treasury, INPS and INAIL, the taxes due through the presentation of F24 forms, and receiving as compensation, 60/70 percent of the tax due.
Some investigated subjects, through companies created in Romania, issued invoices for non-existent operations which were subsequently sent to Italy which they used to reclaim the illicit profits deriving from the criminal activity abroad.
The findings that emerged within the scope of the aforementioned investigations were communicated with a specific crime report to the local Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Judicial Authority, therefore, delegated this Department to carry out targeted investigations aimed at gathering every useful element to demonstrate the conduct of the crime of undue compensation of non-existent credits by ordering, among other things, the acquisition of banking documentation.
From the delegated activities, clear points of connection emerged between the investigations underway by the Terni PEF Unit and the investigations conducted by the Terni Group regarding the laundering and/or reuse of capital of illicit origin.
More in detail, it emerged that some of the financial resources resulting from the illicit conduct analyzed in the investigations carried out by the Unit’s soldiers were used, among other things, for the acquisition of a petroleum products deposit in Terni worth 450,000, 00 euros.
In order to corroborate the elements already collected and fully outline roles and responsibilities, the prosecuting prosecutor delegated the execution of a decree to search and seize documents against 39 companies.
Following various meetings held with the foreign collateral, and in response to the European investigation order issued by the local Public Prosecutor’s Office, numerous current accounts were identified as well as various real estate assets which are subject to seizure with a specific freezing certificate issued by the GIP as required by European legislation.
During today’s operation, high-end jewellery, watches and various accessories were also seized
luxury goods, bank securities and cash in euro and foreign currencies.
The activity carried out demonstrates the daily commitment of the Fiamme Gialle to avoid the pollution of the economy with capital of illicit origin and the synergistic work of the national and foreign judicial and police authorities to prevent the monetization of false credits and guarantee honest businesses , which are thus protected from the illicit competitive advantage obtained by competing companies that defraud the tax authorities.
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