They supplied cheap labor from Eastern Europe and then laundered the profit through “white horses”

The two main suspects, who caused more than 25 million crowns in damage to the Czech Republic, were detained by the intervention unit

Criminalists from the Department of Economic Crime and members of the General Directorate of Customs – Investigations Department Pilsen, in recent days, the culmination of more than a year of cooperation, during which five suspects were arrested for committing the particularly serious crime of evasion of tax, fee and similar mandatory payments. The two main suspects were detained by the intervention unit.

The criminal activity of the suspects consisted in the fact that they supplied a labor force, which consisted mainly of people from Eastern Europe, to various manufacturing companies. They then collected payments including value added tax for their work. In order to get rid of the obligation to pay the tax, they created a chain of special-purpose companies, in whose statutory bodies they installed persons in the position of so-called white horses.
They then transferred the tax liability to these companies through fictitious tax documents, where the tax became irrecoverable. They then kept the collected tax for their own use, thereby causing damage to the Czech Republic of more than 25 million crowns.

“As part of the implementation, 11 house searches and searches of other premises were carried out, in which more than 70 police officers and customs officers participated. During these actions, a lot of evidentiary material was secured, such as special purpose company stamps, fictitious tax documents, computer technology and other important things for criminal proceedings,” the police spokeswoman said.

“In the matter, the High Commissioner initiated criminal prosecution against three suspects aged fifty-three, fifty-five and forty-five, whom he accused of committing the particularly serious crime of evasion of tax, fee and similar compulsory payment. Two accused were released after the execution of procedural acts. The third accused was taken into custody by the court on the basis of the proposal of the public prosecutor, because there was a reasonable fear that he could influence witnesses and co-accused who have not yet been heard, or otherwise frustrate the criminal prosecution. added the spokeswoman.

As part of the criminal proceedings, a search was also made for proceeds from criminal activity, but they could not be directly identified. However, it was found that the accused owns real estate worth at least 22 million crowns. Due to this fact, these properties were secured as a replacement value. The secured real estate could then be used to at least partially compensate for the damage caused.

All accused face up to ten years in prison.

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