Trieste – La Financial Police of the Provincial Commands of Matera and Turin are currently executing an order for the application of personal precautionary measures and seizures of assets which involved the provinces of Matera, Turin, Foggia, Bari, Campobasso, Rome and Trieste.
The order was issued by the Judge for preliminary investigations of Turin, at the request of the local European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), against 14 subjects, and for preventive seizure of the profit, for over 15 million euros, for criminal association aimed at committing VAT fraud, fraudulently evading consumption tax payments and self-laundering.
The investigations, carried out by the Economic-Financial Police Units of Matera and Turin, concerned subjects operating on the national territory and in Estonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belgium who, through a branched criminal network, introduced and marketed large quantities of lubricating oils for vehicles (cars and trucks), intended for consumer sale, with “black” payments.
There were many strategies aimed at evading VAT and the expected national tax, both through the interposition of “paper mill” companies (without a real operational structure) on which to burden the taxes due, which were systematically not paid, and by arranging ingenious systems to avoid controls and sanctions, such as the creation and use of:
- tax documents with indication of non-existent subjects, both as senders and recipients, to be used in the event of checks during the transport of the goods;
- transport documents indicating compliant recipients;
- copies of delivery notes made by color photocopying from the originals, for the first release for consumption with subsequent destruction of the copies (artificially used along the way), once the transport has been completed, upon arrival of the load at destination and in the absence of checks along the itinerary;
- companies set up specifically to allow illegal purchases of lubricating oil, otherwise indicated on the transport documents such as windshield washer fluid, shampoo, etc.
The searches and IT analyzes also made it possible to reveal that a company operating in the Matera area, one of the main “hubs” for the sale of lubricating oils in central and southern Italy, which also obtained supplies through the criminal association, systematically the purchased lubricating oil is marketed “under the table”, reselling it to other compliant operators in the sector, hiding products worth over 52 million euros from the tax authoritiesas ascertained through analysis of the server containing the company’s hidden accounting.
During the investigations, thanks to technical analyses, eighteen seizures were made on the national territory of consignments of goods imported and marketed illegally, for over 470 tons of lubricating oil as well as other similar products.
Finally, from the investigations, hypotheses of laundering of illicit proceeds and counterfeiting of lubricating oil brands emerged, given that the bulk product was marketed (removing the original labels and affixing others specially printed by a compliant printer), reporting brands, characteristics physical and indications of use relating to product types of greater commercial value.
The overall verified evasion, for the years 2017/2023, is equal to over 14 million euros of VAT and over one million euros of national consumption tax.
The findings collected, also acquired through EPPO’s international cooperation channels, allowed the European Prosecutor’s Office to request and obtain from the Judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Turin a provision for the application of personal precautionary measures against 14 suspects, of which 8 recipients of prison custody and 6 recipients of house arrest.
The preventive seizure, also for equivalent, of financial resources and other assets was also ordered up to the amount of €15,448,000, an amount corresponding to the profit from VAT fraud and evasion of consumption tax.
Dog units were also used for the execution of the precautionary measure, which involved the provinces of Matera, Turin, Foggia, Bari, Campobasso, Rome and Trieste, and was also coordinated in 3 other EU states adhering to EPPO. specialized in the search for cash money (cash dog).
