A huge tax fraud in the pallet trade sector was discovered by the Financial Police of Prato, perpetrated through the use and issuing of invoices for non-existent operations for approximately 80 million euros and VAT for approximately 16 million euros by 56 companies, attributable to subjects located throughout the national territory.
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The financiers of the Prato Group, coordinated by the DDA of Florence, have reconstructed the evasive scheme with which through the use of natural persons of convenience so-called "wooden heads", owners of individual businesses without any corporate endowment and further interposed filter companies, all operating in the pallet trade huge quantities of money were moved.
These dummy subjects were holders of current accounts, directly managed by the criminal association, used to move, thanks to the issuing of invoices for non-existent operations, large sums of money, which, at the end of the laundering chain, were, on a daily basis, withdrawn in cash by various frontmen from financial institutions in the Prato hinterland, to be subsequently concentrated in the offices of a company based in Campi Bisenzio (FI), where they were distributed to various entities owning economic activities.
The Fiamme Gialle, therefore, managed to intercept a system of laundering illicit proceeds based on trade and false invoicing ("Trade based money-laundering"), which is particularly widespread within criminal syndicates.
The activities carried out also made it possible to identify and seize assets illicitly accumulated over the years by affiliates of the alleged criminal association, as well as by entrepreneurs adjacent to it, for a total value of over 4 million euros, including 9 properties, 8 vehicles, over 20 financial reports, 4 businesses and cash for over 300,000 euros.
As proof of the integrated approach adopted by the financiers to combat economic-financial crime, the soldiers of the Prato Group also completed tax checks on the companies involved, reconstructing and reporting to the various Provincial Directorates of the Revenue Agency experts with a total turnover of almost 100 million euros.
To confirm the investigative depth of the operation in question, at present the competent provincial departments of the Revenue Agency, sharing the findings raised by the Fiamme Gialle, have already issued assessment notices for over 67 million euros, taking steps to dispute taxes tax evasion and fines of over 42 million euros. ■