Prague, Oct 1 (CTK) – The Czech special police unit fighting tax evasion, Kobra (Cobra), has accused 16 people and three firms of VAT evasion in copper deals with a damage of 400 million crowns, Jaroslav Vild, head of the anti-corruption police, announced yesterday.
The accused face up to ten years in prison. The punishment may be even one third higher because detectives say the accused were an organised group, Vild said.
They allegedly started their criminal activities in 2012. Kobra investigated the case on a suggestion by the Financial Analytical Section of the Finance Ministry.
The perpetrators allegedly imported particularly copper, but also nickel and zinc to the Zlin Region mainly from Serbia and Russia.
They then fictitiously exported it to other EU countries while the metal remained in the Czech Republic and the perpetrators re-sold it in expediently founded chains.
The Kobra team cooperated in the investigation with Slovak police. The Czechs say they have saved almost 400 million crowns for the state. They seized 186 million crowns in distraints.
The accused, three of whom are Slovaks, have not been taken into custody. The case is supervised by the High State Attorney’s Office in Olomouc, north Moravia.
Kobra is comprised of police, customs officers and financial administration specialists. It was established in June 2014 and it has prevented tax evasion worth 1.9 billion crowns and accused more than 200 people since then.
The team intervened, for instance, in Central Bohemia in February when 29 people were arrested over the fictitious establishing of firms and tax evasion worth some 300 million crowns.
Other cases that were exposed thanks to Kobra concerned fictitious deals with advertising, fuels, textiles, machinery, construction works as well as toilet paper, cigarettes and tobacco.
($1=24.266 crowns)
