Officers of the Customs and Tax Service from the Lower Silesian Customs and Tax Office in Wrocław, supported by the Mazovian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Customs and Tax Offices, dismantled an organized criminal group involved in tax fraud and defrauding banks and leasing companies.
Agnieszka Rzeźnicka-Gniadek, spokesperson for the Lower Silesian KAS, explains:
The group operated in the Lower Silesian, Mazovian, Silesian, Greater Poland and Łódź Voivodeships. Among other things, its members used fake identity cards.
Seven people were arrested in Wrocław, Warsaw, Łódź, Toruń and the municipalities of Nadarzyn and Zegrze. The suspects included the organizer of the scheme, his closest associates and a so-called front man in whose name companies were registered.
The losses were estimated at over PLN 9 million. The spokesperson said: – During the operation, assets belonging to the suspects and entities involved in the scheme worth over PLN 5 million were secured.
The prosecutor’s office charged the scheme’s organizer, among other things, with leading an organized criminal group, using another person’s document, money laundering and forging invoices. These offenses carry a sentence of between 5 and 25 years in prison.
The others were charged, among other things, with participation in an organized criminal group, money laundering, forging invoices and tax fraud. They face a fine and up to 8 years in prison.
Six suspects were placed in pre-trial detention by the court. The case is supervised by the Wrocław Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor’s Office.