Prague, March 14 (CTK) – Detectives from the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) have accused 22 people of tax evasion causing damage of some 75 million crowns, NCOZ spokesman Jaroslav Ibehej told CTK on Wednesday.
Four of the accused have been taken into custody, while the others are investigated out of custody. If found guilty, they face from five to ten years in prison.
According to the police, the suspects established and controlled a chain of at least nine firms that did not run any business. Yet they issued invoices for cleaning and forestry works.
Another link in the chain were regularly operating business corporations that unlawfully applied VAT deductions based on tax receipts from the above passive firms, Ibehej said.
The Tax Cobra squad, set up in 2014 to fight high tax evasion, in which the police cooperate with the custom and tax authorities, looked into the case.
Last year alone, the Cobra team prevented tax evasion of more than 1.4 billion crowns, while in 2016, it was over 3.3 billion crowns from the state budget.
In the current case, the financial authority issued freezing orders than enabled to seize 13 million crowns from the accused, in bank accounts and as the right of lien to real estate, Ibehej said.
During a raid on the criminal group, police officers carried out 25 home searches in which they seized cars, money in bank accounts and in cash, of more than 12 million crowns in total.
The case is supervised by the Municipal State Attorney’s Office in Prague.
