CHANGE LANGUAGE

Operation “Moby Dick”, criminal association dedicated to tax fraud and money laundering with mafia methods crushed: 47 precautionary measures, 1.3 billion in false invoices and 520 million seized

Over 160 searches in 30 different provinces at homes, offices and companies linked to the suspects, also carried out with the help of the Guardia di Finanza's cash dogs, specialized in finding hidden banknotes

Operation “Moby Dick”, criminal association dedicated to tax fraud and money laundering with mafia methods crushed: 47 precautionary measures, 1.3 billion in false invoices and 520 million seized.

Criminal association aimed at tax fraud and money laundering, aggravated by mafia methods: 47 personal precautionary measures carried out, seizures of goods, valuables and money for 520 million euros, false invoices for 1,3 billion euros reconstructed.
The operation called “Moby Dick” was launched at the request of the Offices of Milano and Palermo of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the Court of Milano has issued 47 restrictive measures - 34 in prison, 9 under house arrest and 4 interdictory measures - against the same number of suspects held responsible, to varying degrees, for criminal association aimed at evading intra-Community VAT in the trade of IT products and laundering the related profits.

Operazione “Moby Dick”, stroncato sodalizio criminale dedito alle frodi fiscali e riciclaggio col metodo mafioso: 47 misure cautelari, 1.3 miliardi di fatture false e 520 milioni sequestrati.

In relation to the management of some companies for which bankruptcy proceedings are underway, the restrictive measures also concern bankruptcy crimes. The recipients of the custodial measures in prison also include 7 suspects for whom the European Arrest Warrant was issued, 4 of whom are located in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain and Bulgaria. Furthermore, the preventive seizure, also for equivalent, of goods, securities and money for over 520 million euros has been ordered against the investigated people and companies, identified as the overall profit of the fraud, equal to the evaded VAT, and the preventive seizure for money laundering of some residential and real estate complexes with a total value of over 10 million euros located in Cefalù (PA), as well as other real estate complexes attributable to some of the companies, falling within the territories of Chiavari (GE), Bellano (LC), Noli (SV), Cinisello Balsamo (MI) and Milano and Cefalù (PA).

The Judge recognized for precautionary purposes for the leaders of the criminal organization the aggravating circumstance of having facilitated, by investing their profits in the VAT fraud sector, criminal gangs of the Camorra and the Mafia and of having made use of the Mafia method, especially in terms of resolving conflicts that arose within the multi-level organization between exponents of the various criminal organizations.

The investigation is the result of the convergence of two distinct investigative lines originating from the Economic and Financial Police Units of Varese and Milano with EPPO Milano on the subject of carousel fraud, and by the State Police - Palermo Mobile Squad and SISCO, with the investigative and operational coordination of the Central Operations Service - and by the PEF Unit of Palermo, with EPPO Palermo, within which emerged the finalization and participation in the commission of carousel fraud by exponents of organized crime of the mafia and camorra type, managers of some of the supply chains of companies used in the circuits already under investigation of Milano and also responsible for reinvesting illicit profits.

Operazione “Moby Dick”, stroncato sodalizio criminale dedito alle frodi fiscali e riciclaggio col metodo mafioso: 47 misure cautelari, 1.3 miliardi di fatture false e 520 milioni sequestrati.

The two proceedings were merged, allowing for excellent investigative synergy thanks to the operation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office throughout the national territory, allowing the Delegated European Prosecutors to Milano and Palermo to advance a joint request for the application of real and personal precautionary measures, later accepted by the GIP of the Court of Milano.

Over 160 searches are currently underway in 30 different provinces at homes, offices and companies linked to the suspects, also carried out with the help of the Guardia di Finanza's cash dogs, specialized in finding hidden banknotes. In total, 200 individuals are under investigation and over 400 companies are involved, many of which are accused of administrative offences deriving from these crimes, as provided for by Legislative Decree 231/2001.

Concurrent enforcement activities of restrictive measures, search and seizure are underway in the EU countries affected by the fraud and, in particular, in Spain, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Netherlands, and in non-EU countries, such as Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates..

The investigations

The investigation concerned a structured intra-Community VAT carousel fraud in the electronic/IT products trade sector that affected several EU countries (Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania), also involving 20 foreign companies, and also concerned some members of Sicilian and Campanian organised crime who, foreseeing the huge profits of the carousel fraud business, became part of it by providing financial provisions, thus also laundering the proceeds of other criminal activities.

Carousel frauds are carried out by exploiting the non-taxable regime for VAT purposes provided for intra-Community commercial transactions, by interposing in a transaction between companies from different countries a fictitious economic entity, the so-called "shell company" (or ghost company or missing trader), which purchases the goods from the community supplier without applying VAT and then resells them to a national company (also involved in the fraud) with the application of ordinary Italian VAT. It is at this stage that the fraudulent conduct is carried out, as the "shell company", instead of selling the goods increased by its own profit and paying the VAT collected from its sale, sells them below cost without paying the tax indicated on the relevant invoice issued to the Treasury. The missing trader, in fact, lacking operational structures and employees, usually managed by front men, without fulfilling any tax obligation, other than that of issuing subjectively false invoices, after a short life (maximum 2 years) is closed down and replaced by another company with similar characteristics.

This fraudulent scheme allows goods to be placed on the national market at very competitive prices and usually involves further steps in which the goods are sold, always below cost, to other Italian companies (so-called filter or buffer), inserted into the circuit with the sole purpose of making it more difficult to identify the scheme and its final beneficiaries, represented by the so-called broker companies, i.e. the companies actually operating that, by purchasing the product from the buffer with the application of VAT, claim the corresponding VAT credit towards the Treasury. The final effect is to resell the goods on the domestic market, taking advantage of the artificially competitive purchase price, or resell them abroad, often to the same community companies (so-called conduits) that originated the commercial chain by originally selling to the missing trader, to ensure that the carousel starts again.

The repercussions

The damage to the European Union is constituted by the VAT indicated in the invoices issued by the missing traders or “shell companies”, who have purchased the goods without applying the tax and who place them on the national market by applying it instead to the buyer, without however paying it to the Treasury, but dividing it among the accomplices of the fraud.
The numbers of companies involved in the discovered fraud are impressive: 269 missing traders, 55 buffers, 28 broker companies and 52 foreign conduits, for a total volume of subjectively false invoices equal to 1,3 billion euros, in the four-year period 2020-2023 alone. The action expresses the commitment of the police forces involved and the European Public Prosecutor's Office in the fight against VAT fraud and, more generally, tax evasion, which constitutes a serious obstacle to economic development given the distorting effect of free competition. At the same time, the fight against economic and organized crime allows us to intercept and repress any form of pollution of the legal economy, also allowing us to return to the community, through the seizure of illicit assets, the wealth accumulated over time by crime.

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